FOXBORO — The NFL will fight the lawsuit brought against it and the Patriots by lawyers who represented Aaron Hernandez, league spokesman Joe Lockhart said yesterday.
“We intend to contest the claim vigorously,” Lockhart said, a day after attorney Jose Baez revealed Hernandez suffered from a severe case of the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
The suit claims the NFL and the Patriots are to blame for the former tight end’s death and that they had a duty to warn Hernandez about the effects of repeated head trauma. Lockhart felt it important not to portray Hernandez, who committed suicide while in prison serving a life sentence for murder, as a victim.