On Tuesday, April 19th, Aaron Hernandez was found in his prison cell, hanging from a window by his bed sheet. He was pronounced dead early that morning, and frankly, the biggest question everyone was asking was: Why now?

For those who haven't been paying attention, Hernandez was on trial for the last few weeks in Suffolk Court in Massachusetts for another double murder, one that was used as a possible motive for the murder he was convicted of many years ago, the one of his friend Odin Lloyd. It was an interesting trial (one that I attended actually for a day), and one that I came out of thinking he actually, under the premise of needing "unreasonable doubt" to convict him, could get off. That came to fruition last Friday, with Hernandez's attorney Jose Baez coming out and saying shortly after that in regards to the Lloyd trial he "always felt that that was a winnable case" and that he wished he had hired him back then. Five days later, he is dead, and none of this matters.

.....except that part isn't entirely true, for a variety of reasons.

The first one is that interestingly enough, due to an old law in the state of Massachusetts, since Hernandez died before he was given his right to appeal the previous conviction, he is in fact considered an innocent man. While that may not seem like anything of significance, seeing how Hernandez is now dead, it is for a variety of parties, most of all for his family. Of course, seeing how he was in the middle of a 5 year, 40 million dollar contract with the Patriots, there is now the question of whether the Patriots and the NFL owe him money.

The first question: whether the Patriots owe him money, is addressed well in this video:
The second one is tricky. The NFL offers a pension fund for all of it's current and former players, and while many will attest they don't do nearly enough (and correctly so) for their former players, seeing how Hernandez's estate, including a young daughter, are low on money at this point after paying for these trials, this could be a huge difference. Seeing how Hernandez did, in fact, play three seasons in the NFL, he is entitled to at least the minimum pension, which even at the minimum pay rate will likely give the Hernandez family a somewhat significant amount of money.

While that makes his loss hurt less for his family, it still leaves them with a lot of questions. Why now? Why would you do this just when you got the first glimmer of hope in years? Why would you do it on the day the Patriots visited the white house? Was that just a coincidence? Why would you do that to your family, who just spent so much time, money and emotional distress defending you? Why?

When this conviction came down, it was assumed we had seen the last of Aaron:
No emotion there, he knew his fate pretty early on and likely wasn't surprised based on anything he had heard that he had been sentenced to life on that day.

Now check out this video:
You can't tell me that is the reaction of a man with no hope, nothing to live for. As a result, there's already been a couple conspiracy theories on the matter, one from his lawyer claiming it was a murder, which seems to have a little validity perhaps, and another that seems pretty crazy involving his sexuality. Baez came out and said the following in regards to an investigation into his death:

"There were no conversations or correspondence from Aaron to his family or legal team that would have indicated this scenario was a possibility. Aaron was looking forward to an opportunity for a second chance to prove his innocence. Those who love and care about him are heartbroken and determined to find the truth surrounding his untimely death."

His agent says the same, and now the NFL could have another nightmare on their hands as Hernandez's brain has been donated to BU in order to assess whether Aaron Hernandez had CTE at the time of his death.

All of this is to say: this case is far from over, it's just getting started. In regards to the reason why Hernandez killed himself, nobody can be sure. Maybe it was to mess with the Patriots. Maybe he was murdered. There's one theory that he smoked synthetic marijuana, which doesn't sound totally implausible. I couldn't tell you, but all I can say is two things:

1. Suicide tends to not be preceded by warnings, as Harvard found in a study on the matter.

2. I don't have a source for this, so take with that as you will, but I've always heard that people don't kill themselves when they're at their worst. It's usually when they've been at their worst, but they get just a little hope- they have a good day, work doesn't suck, some little thing perks you up a little bit- only to realize that soon after, that hope will wear off, leading them back to that life they had before that. Sometimes they look at it as a chance for a fresh start, but sometimes they realize the life they had/have is the life they're going to live. They decide they want no part of it and end it.

When I heard about Hernandez's suicide, it was the first thing that came into my head, and come to think of it, it may have some validity. Either way though, while I would never call him the victim- that label goes towards his family, and the families of those killed, whether he did it or not- and there must be some solace in him dying an innocent man, even if it is just by a technicality.