On April 19, 2017, former Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez took his own life at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Lanchester, Massachusetts. Hernandez was serving time in Massachusetts following his conviction for the murder of Odin Lloyd, the boyfriend of Hernandez’s former fiancée’s sister. Following the April suicide, the Hernandez family gave custody of Aaron Hernandez’s brain to sports concussion researchers at Boston University’s Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Center in hopes of uncovering some answers.
According to concussionfoundation.org, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is a degenerative brain disease found in athletes, military veterans and others with a history of repetitive brain trauma.