Aaron Hernandez's lawyers target NFL, Riddell in new suit

Oct 17, 2017 - 3:06 AM Lawyers for Aaron Hernandez refiled a lawsuit against the NFL and the league's helmet manufacturer in a Massachusetts state court on Monday.

The latest filing came after Hernandez's legal team dropped a federal lawsuit against the league and the New England Patriots last week, opting to pursue its case in state court because they can add more counts.

Hernandez, a former tight end for the Patriots, committed suicide in jail on April 19 while serving a life sentence for murder. Researchers at Boston University later discovered that Hernandez was dealing with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

The latest filing does not include the Patriots, although a separate lawsuit will be filed against the team at a later date, the Boston Herald reported.

However, Riddell, the company that manufactures helmets for the NFL, was part of Monday's filing.

Hernandez had "the most severe case of CTE medically seen in a person of his young age of 28 years" by BU researchers, according to the original filing. It said Hernandez's Stage 3 CTE is "usually seen in players with a median age of death of 67 years."

The lawyers for Hernandez charged that both the league and the Patriots were "fully aware" of the damage that could be inflicted to Hernandez's brain by the time he entered the NFL in 2010 and "failed to disclose, treat, or protect him from the dangers of such damage."

Riddell responded to the lawsuit with a statement in which it said it would "vigorously" defend its products, citing the design of helmets "specifically designed to mitigate concussion risks" more than 15 years ago.

Hernandez, who played three seasons with the Patriots, died after hanging himself in his cell. He was serving a life sentence for the murder of Odin Lloyd, a sentence delivered in April 2015.

The suicide came four days after Hernandez was acquitted of a double murder in the resolution of a separate case.

Due to a Massachusetts state law, Hernandez's murder conviction was overturned by a judge in early May on a technicality. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court procedurally voids first-degree murder convictions in cases when a defendant dies before the appeal is heard.

Hernandez was convicted of first-degree murder following the 2013 killing of Lloyd, a semi-professional football player who was dating Hernandez's fiancee's sister. Lloyd's body was discovered in an industrial park about a mile away from Hernandez's home in North Attleboro, Mass.

Hernandez also was charged with the murder of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado in 2012 shootings in Boston. He was acquitted of those charges in mid-April but convicted of unlawful possession of a gun.

Drafted by New England in the fourth round in 2010, Hernandez signed a seven-year, $40 million contract with the Patriots before the 2012 season. That deal included a $12.5 million signing bonus and a guarantee of $15.9 million.