National Football League

Patriots react to 'tragic, sad' news of Hernandez conviction

Published Apr. 21, 2015 3:52 p.m. ET

foxsports

By Doug Kyed

Aaron Hernandez’s name hasn’t been mentioned very frequently in Gillette Stadium over the past 22 months.

New England Patriots players have been focused on football, not their former teammate who has been sitting in jail. Patriots safety Devin McCourty and special-teams ace Matthew Slater were asked Tuesday about Hernandez, who was found guilty of first-degree murder last Wednesday and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

“It’s just saddening,” McCourty said. “You talk about two lives being gone. I think it’s like everyone else, you look at that whole thing as just a saddening event and everything that went on.”

Hernandez, a fourth-round draft pick in 2010, was part of the same class as McCourty. He was a teammate of McCourty and Slater’s for three seasons before being charged with murder in June 2013.

“I’ll say this, that’s a very tragic, sad situation for so many different people, for so many different reasons,” Slater said. “I just feel like we should keep everybody involved and affected by that situation in our prayers and in our thoughts. That’s really all that I’ll say on that. My heart is broken on so many different levels on that. And I just pray for everyone that’s been affected by it.”

Hernandez, who will serve his life sentence at Massachusetts Correctional Institution-Cedar Junction, which is located in Walpole, Mass., might be able to hear Gillette Stadium crowd noise from the prison yard.

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