Aaron Hernandez was selected as a first team All-American following his junior season at Florida in 2009. The university was proud of the accomplishment at the time and decided to etch Hernandez’s name in history with a brick outside of its football facility. In the wake of the 23-year-old’s arrest and ensuing murder charge, that pride seems to have disappeared.
Florida made the decision to remove the brick on Thursday.
Aaron Hernandez All-American brick coming down. pic.twitter.com/gCflaDAXjS
— Ted Spiker (@ProfSpiker) July 25, 2013
In a written statement, the university also announced its plan to scrub Hernandez’s name from existence by the end of the month. Via Boston.com:
We didn’t feel it was appropriate to celebrate Aaron Hernandez. We put together an immediate plan after the initial news broke to remove his likeness and name in various private and public areas in the facility, such as the South Endzone team area, locker room, football offices, Heavener Complex Kornblau Lobby and the brick display entrance to the football facility.
We were able to implement some of the changes immediately and this (brick removal) was a more complex process to complete with our vendors.
The plan was to have everything completed before the end of July.”
In terms of erasing Hernandez’s name from history, Florida is actually late to the party. Hernandez’s jerseys were removed from the official NFL shop almost immediately following his arrest, and we know how much of a hit the No. 81 jersey exchange was at Gillette Stadium. EA Sports has also removed his character from one of its video games. The Gators basically had no choice.
Photo via Twitter/Julie Quittner
