Aaron Hernandez: One More For the Road

I know that I literally just posted an article promising that I was finished with the Aaron Hernandez saga and it was time to get back to business, but I was bored last night and decided to do a little research, for no other reason than to quell a little voice in the back of my head that told me that there might be some aspect of this whole Hernandez episode that we may have overlooked. And lo and behold, I was right. Let me set the scene:

Tom Brady lines up in a shotgun formation on 3rd and 10. Aaron Hernandez initially lines up as a tight end, but Brady motions him out into the slot, forcing the safety to shift over into coverage. At the snap, Hernandez cuts inside before making a sharp turn towards the sideline and Tommy B hits him for 11 yards. 1st down New England.

Two things in particular make this play unique. One, it was the last pattern Hernandez ran in 2012 and it was the last catch he will ever make as a Patriot. And two, since the play didn't result in a touchdown, it means that someone must have tackled him. And just who was it that brought him down? Who was the last NFL player to tackle Aaron Hernandez?

Bernard Pollard.

I don't know why I was so surprised to see it. Of course it was Pollard. And while he obviously had nothing to do with the choices that Hernandez made in his personal life, it's only fitting that he was the last man to tackle the player that was supposed to be the future of our franchise. Move over, Madden Curse - there's a new sheriff in town.

There may be much more to the Tim Tebow signing than we all thought.