Lawyer says Aaron Hernandez had advanced CTE, files suit against NFL

Image courtesy of Zimbio

The lawyer for Aaron Hernandez says the former New England Patriots tight end’s brain showed severe signs of the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

In April 2015, Hernandez was convicted of the first-degree murder of Odin Lloyd, a who was dating the sister of his fiancee at the time. Two years later Hernandez was acquitted of the double murder of two men in a drive-by shooting near a Boston nightclub in 2012.

One year later, again in April, Hernandez was found dead of hanging in his Massachusetts prison cell. His death was ruled a suicide.

In a news conference at his offices, attorney Jose Baez says testing showed that Hernandez had a severe case of the disease.

CTE can be caused by repeated head trauma and leads to symptoms like violent mood swings, depression and other cognitive difficulties. Hernandez killed himself in April in the jail cell where he was serving a life-without-parole sentence for a 2013 murder. His death came just hours before the Patriots visited the White House to celebrate their latest Super Bowl victory.

CTE can only be diagnosed in an autopsy. A recent study found evidence of the disease in 110 of 111 former NFL players whose brains were examined.