Aaron Hernandez ‘American Sports Story’ series wants to show a different view of the disgraced NFLer

From a podcast to multiple documentaries, the rise and fall of the once revered NFL star Aaron Hernandez is certainly well documented. An FX limited series is latest to rehash the saga, attempting to go beyond the headlines and dig deeper into his story.

“American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez" stars Josh Andrés Rivera as the New England Patriots tight end. It details Hernandez's troubled childhood with an abusive father who demanded his son play football and project masculinity and toughness to the world. Secretly, Hernandez also struggled with his sexuality.

He played college ball at the University of Florida and was drafted by the Patriots. Over time, the series shows how Hernandez's behavior grew increasingly erratic. He was convicted of murder and died by suicide in 2017 while serving a life sentence. After his death, research showed Hernandez's brain showed evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

“What we tried to do with this show — is take a tabloid headline, take some story that you think you know about Aaron Hernandez ... and go behind it and see what it’s like to walk in the shoes of all the people who are part of this,” said Brad Simpson, one of the series’ executive producers, in an interview.

Hernandez's life, crimes and death have been detailed before in long-form writing, documentaries including Netflix's “Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez," and the podcast “Gladiator: Aaron Hernandez and Football Inc.,” which is the basis for “American Sports Story.”

Rivera, known for his supporting roles in the recent “Hunger Games” prequel and 2021's “West Side Story,” said playing the former tight end was a “responsibility that you have to approach with a certain level of sensitivity.”

Once he started learning more about Hernandez’s life, diving into recordings of phone calls he made from prison and watching clips from his interviews, Rivera said he began to see the layered intricacy of Hernandez’s life. And he only became more eager to play him.

“To a lot of people, he was very charming and very charismatic and easy to get along with. There were not a small amount of people who felt that way, so that was interesting because you have to dissect the ‘why,’” Rivera said. “There’s clearly a magnetism there, disguising an inner life that’s very complex.”

Rivera said he enjoyed the challenge of that character work, calling Hernandez “a chameleon.”

“There was variations on the amount of tenderness and even the frankness, or the amount of swagger he would use from person to person, so I tried to incorporate that to a core essence,” he said.

Transforming into Hernandez was also a physical commitment for Rivera, who described getting into NFL shape as “meathead summer,” where he increased his food intake and worked with trainers to build muscle. The hardest part, though, of the transformation for Rivera, was getting inked up.

His mobility was often limited when filming to preserve the tattoos, which he said he initially found frustrating, but ultimately, the “oppressive feeling” of not being able to move freely was something he channeled into his character’s frustration.

Rivera stars alongside Jaylen Barron as Hernandez’s high school sweetheart and later fiancé, Shayanna Jenkins, Lindsay Mendez as his cousin, Ean Castellanos as his brother and Tammy Blanchard as his mother. Patrick Schwarzenegger plays Hernandez’s college teammate Tim Tebow, Tony Yazbeck plays former Florida coach Urban Meyer and Norbert Leo Butz plays former Patriots coach Bill Belichick.

With the first sports-focused season of the “American Story” franchise, producers said they are interested in dissecting the “American religion of football.” They also hope viewers question the preconceptions they had about people involved in stories that captured the nation, like that of Hernandez.

“We can use this story to challenge certain perspectives or to just add a little bit of nuance for people who maybe don’t know much about it or have a fixed mindset about it,” Rivera said. “It’s an interesting opportunity.”

FILE - Josh Rivera poses for a portrait to promote the FX television series "American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez" during the Summer Television Critics Association Press Tour in Pasadena, Calif., on July 17, 2024. (Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP, File)

This image released by FX shows Lindsay Mendez as Tanya Singleton, left, and Josh Rivera as Aaron Hernandez in a scene from the FX series "American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez." (FX via AP)

This image released by FX shows Josh Rivera as Aaron Hernandez in a scene from the FX series "American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez." (FX via AP)

This image released by FX shows Josh Rivera as Aaron Hernandez in a scene from the FX series "American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez." (FX via AP)

FILE - Norbert Leo Butz, from left, Josh Rivera, Patrick Schwarzenegger and Jaylen Barron pose for a portrait to promote the FX television series "American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez" during the Summer Television Critics Association Press Tour in Pasadena, Calif., on July 17, 2024. (Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP, File)

FILE - Josh Rivera poses for a portrait to promote the FX television series "American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez" during the Summer Television Critics Association Press Tour in Pasadena, Calif., on July 17, 2024. (Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP, File)

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is striking Hezbollah “with full force” and will not stop until its goals are achieved.

Netanyahu spoke as he landed in New York to attend the annual U.N. General Assembly meeting and as U.S. and European officials were pressing for a 21-day halt in fighting between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah to give time for negotiations.

Netanyahu said Israel’s “policy is clear. We are continuing to strike Hezbollah with full force. And we will not stop until we reach all our goals, chief among them the return of the residents of the north securely to their homes.”

Israel has dramatically escalated strikes in Lebanon this week, saying it is targeting Hezbollah. Israeli leaders have said they are determined to stop more than 11 months of cross-border fire by the militant group into Israel, which has forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of Israelis from communities in the north.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — The Israeli prime minister on Thursday appeared to downplay hopes of an imminent truce with Hezbollah after the United States and its allies called for an immediate 21-day cease-fire to “provide space for diplomacy.”

Hours later, the Israeli military said it killed a Hezbollah drone commander in an airstrike on an apartment building in the suburbs of the Lebanese capital.

As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was en route to New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly, his office said there had been no directive to ease up on fighting on the northern border with Lebanon. It said that there was only a proposal for a cease-fire on the table and that Netanyahu had not responded to it.

The statement tempered hopes for the international initiative aimed at halting increasingly heavy exchanges of fire that have killed hundreds of people in Lebanon and threatened to trigger an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah. Israel has talked of a possible ground invasion into Lebanon to push the militant group away from the border.

Soon after the statement was issued, Hezbollah TV station Al-Manar reported an Israeli airstrike in a suburb of Beirut. It and other stations showed a damaged apartment building in Dahiyeh, the mainly Shiite suburb where Hezbollah has a strong presence.

The Israeli military later said the strike killed Mohammed Hussein Surour. Hezbollah offered no immediate comment on the claim.

Two people were killed and 15 wounded in the strike, the Lebanese Health Ministry said.

Over the past week, Israel has carried out several strikes in Beirut targeting senior Hezbollah commanders. Earlier in the day, a strike in eastern Lebanon killed 20 people, most of them Syrian migrants, according to Lebanese health officials.

Israel has dramatically stepped up its bombardment in Lebanon, saying it is determined to stop Hezbollah's near-daily rocket volleys over the past 11 months that have forced tens of thousands to evacuate homes in northern Israel. Strikes since Monday have killed more than 630 people in Lebanon, around a quarter of them women and children, according to local health authorities. Intensifying Hezbollah barrages have wounded several people in Israel.

Hezbollah has not yet responded to the proposal for a pause in fighting. Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati welcomed it, but his government has no sway over the group.

Hezbollah has insisted it would halt its strikes only if there is a cease-fire in Gaza, where Israel has battled Hamas for nearly a year. That appears out of reach despite months of negotiations led by the United States, Egypt and Qatar.

In its statement, Netanyahu’s office said that “the fighting in Gaza will also continue until all the objectives of the war have been achieved.” Netanyahu is expected to meet with other world leaders on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.

One of Netanyahu's far-right governing partners threatened on Thursday to suspend cooperation with his government if it signs onto a temporary cease-fire with Hezbollah – and to quit completely if a permanent deal is reached. It was the latest sign of displeasure from Netanyahu’s allies toward international cease-fire efforts.

“If a temporary cease-fire becomes permanent, we will resign from the government,” said National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, head of the Jewish Power party.

If Ben-Gvir leaves the coalition, Netanyahu would lose his parliamentary majority and could see his government come toppling down, though opposition leaders have said they would offer support for a cease-fire deal.

Israel launched a massive operation in Gaza after a Hamas-led attack into southern Israel on Oct. 7 in which some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed, and some 250 were taken hostage. The Israeli campaign has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to local officials.

Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel one day after the Oct. 7 attack in support of its Hamas allies, and Hezbollah and Israel have traded fire ever since.

Israeli families of the hostages said they are pushing for a possible cease-fire deal for Lebanon to include provisions for the war in Gaza, especially securing release of the roughly 70 hostages still presumed to be alive and the bodies of some 30 others.

Gil Dickmann, whose cousin Carmel Gat was kidnapped and was one of six Israelis whose bodies were recovered from tunnels in Gaza in August, said the hostages’ families are feeling forgotten as attention shifts to the northern front. He called on Netanyahu to reach a truce with both Hezbollah and Hamas with provisions for the release of hostages.

“We know that these things are connected to each other, the northern part and the southern part,” Dickmann said Tuesday. “We’re very worried that if we don’t make the right decisions now, we will miss this amazing opportunity to get the hostages out.”

Before this week, the cross-border barrages between Hezbollah and the Israeli military had killed about 600 people in Lebanon, mostly militants but including more than 100 civilians, and about four dozen people in Israel, roughly half of them soldiers and the rest civilians. The fighting also forced tens of thousands to flee homes on both sides of the border.

Israeli leaders have said they are determined to force Hezbollah back from the border to allow its citizens to return to their homes. It has moved thousands of troops to the order in preparation for a possible ground operation.

It says its escalated strikes across Lebanon the past week are targeting Hezbollah rocket launchers and other military infrastructure. Hezbollah in turn has fired hundreds of rockets into Israel, saying they are targeting Israeli military positions. On Wednesday, they fired on Tel Aviv for the first time with a longer-range missile that was intercepted.

Early Thursday, an Israeli airstrike hit a building housing Syrian workers and their families near the ancient city of Baalbek in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley. The Lebanese Health Ministry said 19 Syrians and a Lebanese were killed, one of the deadliest single strikes in Israel’s intensified air campaign. The state news agency had initially reported that 23 people were dead.

Hussein Salloum, a local official in Younine, said most of the dead were women and children.

“We dug through the rubble with our own hands” until a small bulldozer was brought in, Salloum told The Associated Press by telephone. “We had very limited capabilities.”

Lebanon, with a population of around 6 million, hosts nearly 780,000 registered Syrian refugees and hundreds of thousands who are unregistered — the world’s highest refugee population per capita.

Israel struck 75 sites overnight across southern and eastern Lebanon, the military said. At least 45 projectiles were fired from Lebanon early Thursday, all of which were intercepted or fell in open areas, it said.

Mroue reported from Beirut.

A damaged building at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburbs, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

A man carries a damaged bicycle at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Saksakieh, south Lebanon, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

A man carries pictures of his relatives standing at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Saksakieh, south Lebanon, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Displaced children sit in a classroom in Beirut, after fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south with their families, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Displaced children play in a classroom at a school, in Beirut, after fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south with their families, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

A displaced boy sleeps in a classroom in Beirut, after fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south with his family, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Displaced youth hug as they take shelter at a school in Beirut, after fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south with their families, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Displaced people gather in the hallway of a school in Beirut, after fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Volunteers distribute clothes to displayed women at a school in Beirut, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Displaced women smoke waterpipes as they sit in a school in Beirut, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Displaced people sit in a school yard in Beirut, after fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Displaced women and children sit in a classroom in Beirut, after fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

People take cover as a siren sounds a warning of incoming rockets fired from Lebanon, in Safed, northern Israel, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

People run to take cover as a siren sounds a warning of incoming rockets fired from Lebanon, in Safed, northern Israel, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Ali Abdel Rahman Zorout, 5, who was wounded in an Israeli airstrike, poses for a picture at the Alaaeddine Hospital in Sarafand, south Lebanon, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Fatima Abdel Rahman Zorout, 7, who was wounded in an Israeli airstrike, is wheeled on a gurney at the Alaaeddine Hospital in Sarafand, south Lebanon, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

A man carries a damaged bicycle at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Saksakieh, south Lebanon, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

A man stands on top of a damaged car at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Saksakieh, south Lebanon, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

A man reacts in a damaged apartment at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Saksakieh, south Lebanon, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

An emergency worker cuts concrete blocks as he searches for survivors at the scene of an Israeli airstrike in the town of Maisara, north of Beirut, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)