For the sake of historical accuracy, this article contains coverage of harmful discussions and directly quoted jokes about queer orientation and homosexuality.
WARNING: SPOILERS ahead for the finale of American Sports Story.
The FX ending American sports history includes a scene of Boston reporter Michele McPhee’s controversial comments about Aaron Herandnez’s alleged sexuality. From the first two episodes of American sports historyAaron Hernandez’s life and NFL career were heading toward a tragic and frightening endpoint that resulted in the former New England Patriot and star tight end receiving a life sentence for the murder of Odin Lloyd. Starting with his emergence as an offensive weapon on Urban Meyer’s legendary but controversial Florida Gators team and receiving the coveted John Mackey Award, American sports history episode 10 ends with Hernandez behind bars in a federal prison.
American sports history episode 10, “Who Killed Aaron Hernandez?” chronicles Hernandez’s second murder trial and death by suicide in 2017 after being represented by famous lawyer Jose Baez. At the end of American sports history In the end, Hernandez takes his own life in his prison cell just days after being acquitted of two additional counts of murder for a 2012 double homicide in Boston. American sports history highlights the various forces working against Hernandezincluding the physical abuse and toxic masculinity of his father Dennis, alleged sexual abuse as a child, chronic cannabis and substance abuse, closeted and repressed sexuality, and Hernandez’s postmortem diagnosis of advanced stage 3 CTE.
Michele McPhee discussed Aaron Hernandez’s sexuality on Kirk & Callahan
She appeared on the show on April 17, 2017
As portrayed in American Sports History: Aaron Hernandez In the end, Boston sports reporter Michele McPhee, along with hosts Kirk Minihane and Gerry Callahan, made crude and careless jokes about Hernandez’s alleged homosexuality live on a popular sports radio show. The series’ wall-hanging banner logo that reads “WEEI 93.7 FM” is accurate and the sports radio station continues to be widely heard in the Boston area. “The Kirk & Callahan Show” aired from August 2016 to September 2018. McPhee began his journalist career with The Boston Globe in 1993 and was also a writer for Showtime’s City on a hill.
McPhee appeared on “The Kirk & Callahan Show” on April 17, 2017two days after Hernandez was acquitted of the double homicide and two days before his death by suicide. The dialogue between McPhee and the radio presenters in American sports history it’s almost verbatim what was actually said about Hernandez on air. McPhee opened the door for discussion on the hot topic, saying, “Let’s provoke.” She supported the host’s claim that Hernandez was a “tight end on and off the field,” and “he became a wide receiver.“McPhee added that Hernandez kicked”with both feet” (through The New Yorker).
Michele McPhee published the first national news story about Aaron Hernandez’s sexuality
McPhee broke the news that authorities interviewed Hernandez’s high school classmate, Dennis SanSoucie
Two days after Hernandez’s death, McPhee wasted no time in publishing the first national news story revealing Hernandez’s alleged closeted homosexuality, titled “Aaron Hernandez’s Sex Life Investigated as Motive for Murder, Police Source Says” (via News week). In it, she describes the final acts of Hernandez’s life and the circumstances of his death. She reported that one of the three suicide notes left by Hernandez was written to his “prison boyfriend“, an unidentified inmate at the Souza Baranowski Correctional Center in Lancaster, Massachusetts. The alleged lover, Kyle Kennedy, came forward in 2020 (via People).
McPhee also noted in his groundbreaking article: “Hernandez’s sexuality, of course, would not be relevant except for the fact that an intimate relationship he allegedly had with a former high school classmate was at the center of the Lloyd murder investigation..” McPhee raises evidence that Hernandez’s homosexuality was already suspected by authoritiesimplying that she was not the first person to discuss the matter. “Hernandez’s alleged longtime lover, high school friend, was interviewed extensively by authorities after Lloyd’s murder and was forced to testify before a grand jury..” She was, however, the first person to draw attention to it on a popular Boston sports radio show.
Michele McPhee Can’t Believe She Revealed Aaron Hernadez’s Sexuality
She wrote a 2020 Newsweek article defending her stance against the fierce backlash
McPhee regretted making those comments about Hernandez but refuted blame that she played any role in Hernandez’s suicide death. “What I said was really inelegant of me and not something I would have done if I wasn’t on a sports radio show. It’s no laughing matter in any way shape or form” (via The New Yorker).
McPhee addressed the issue once again following the release of the 2020 Netflix docuseries Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez and revealed the misguided and threatening hate mail he received after Hernandez’s death. She wrote: “Do I regret that Aaron Hernandez killed himself? Of course. I would not wish the death of any human being. That being said: I did not kill Aaron Hernandez” (through News week). American sports history includes a portrait of McPhee that avoids framing her entirely but extends the narrative that Hernandez was deeply affected by her public comments.
Sources: The New Yorker, Newsweek, People