That's purposefully over-dramatic. He would have been drafted by 100% of teams as he continued to fall. When is the question. BB picked him up when he did because a couple other teams were rumored to want him that rd.
For the Pats, Hernandez was a flyer. Higher risk, higher reward. They already got Gronkowski in that draft, so were covered at tight end.
You're rewriting history there. Hernandez was never considered a Top 15 talent. Most drafts had him mid second round. He fell approximately 1-2 rounds.
He dropped because of multiple (4+) marijuana charges, considered a partier and poor attitude.
One scouts draft profile was as follows:
Self-esteem is quite low; not well-adjusted emotionally, not happy, moods unpredictable, not stable, doesn't take much to set him off, but not an especially jumpy guy
The only problems publicly known with Hernandez were beating the marijuana charges (and maybe one fight iirc). Sure people knew he group up with and was around some shady guys. That probably makes up 25% of the NFL though.
It's a classic everybody "totally knew" after the fact. If people knew anything there would have been many stories on the guy. Where were all the predraft reports?
Reminds me of Bill Polian claiming years later he had a 1st rd grade on Brady but already had a quarterback at the time.
What are "severe problems"? Partied too much? Bad temper? Immature? Got into a fight? Grew up in a gang-centric area of the world?
One Florida staffer:
"[Hernandez] was extremely young when he got there for us, we knew that, but it seemed like he had turned a corner and was maturing," the former Gators staffer said. "We knew there were things to work through. Hard-working kid, guys on team loved him. He's a tough guy; he didn't take crap off anybody, but never to the lines of what's being talked about [now].
With the Patriots, he was relatively quiet and withdrawn, respectful, and worked hard. What more do you want?
If BB thought there were huge red flags of the kind you are mentioning, they wouldn't have given him the contract.
There weren't any rumors of him shooting people dude. There still isn't. He was cleared of anything related to that when it happened, and years after the fact when revisited. The police questioned him (and several other football players), but he was never even named as a suspect. We only found out about the situation later.
There wasn't any huge ruckus predraft. Let me ask you, if the media knew about all this, would they not have mentioned him "in connection" with that? If he was thought to be a 'gang banger', you think the media wouldn't have jumped all over that? That's what they do. And forget about potential murderer.
The entire sports world was completely and utterly shocked by the story when it came out. But you are saying they all knew it was gonna happen beforehand. Doesn't hold any water.