It has been more than eight months since Aaron Hernandez was acquitted of a double murder charge and later took his own life in a prison cell, but the NFL is still making a conscious effort to erase the former tight end from history.
On Thursday, the NFL released an eight-minute highlight reel that shows every one of the 69 touchdown passes Tom Brady has thrown or rushed for in his postseason career. Two of those scores — No. 38 and No. 41 — came with the help of Hernandez. As Tony Massarotti of 98.5 The Sports Hub noticed, Hernandez’s name was strategically edited out of the video.
14 postseason appearances.
34 career games.Here's every Tom Brady Postseason TD! #tbt #NFLPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/2CIHBpz2OW
— NFL (@NFL) January 11, 2018
While Hernandez may have technically died an innocent man thanks to some outdated legal loophole, it’s no surprise the NFL wants to pretend he wasn’t part of the league’s history. A lot of people probably wouldn’t have even noticed if Hernandez’s name was mentioned in the highlight video, but that goes to show you how important “protecting the shield” can be.
