Every February at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, scouts, managers, and coaches spend an entire week placing school soccer gamers by means of rigorous testing, assessing their bodily and psychological fortitude in preparation for the NFL Draft a pair months away. This is the NFL Scouting Combine — a weird custom, in some ways, however an important one. In a approach, it’s the best setting for an episode of a present known as American Sports Story. I’d watch an entire documentary about it.
“Birthday Money” is my favourite episode of Aaron Hernandez but, partly as a result of it makes use of the title character as a form of viewers surrogate experiencing the complicated, high-stress pre-draft course of. After a disturbing flashback opening — extra on that later — the episode launches proper right into a montage of varied brokers wining and eating Aaron and his brother, all insisting that he can go wherever he desires. Aaron may be very vulnerable to individuals buttering him up, but it surely’s apparent he wants somebody who can inform it to him straight. Enter the unassuming Brian Murphy (Thomas Sadoski), who warns Aaron that his first-round expertise received’t make up for sure “off-the-field concerns.”
Forget the primary spherical — if Aaron desires to be chosen in any respect, he’ll have to make an incredible impression on the Scouting Combine. But earlier than the episode will get to that massive occasion, it takes time to construct some mystique. Prior to going through the extreme actuality of the showcase, Aaron trains for 4 weeks with the company in Laguna Hills, California, with D.J. alongside for ethical help. Training entails re-watching clips of interceptions and incomplete passes from his final three years of faculty soccer, taking accountability for his errors and turning into extra “coachable.” It additionally means sitting by means of lengthy interviews and answering ridiculous questions designed to rile him up, like “Are you in a gang?” and “Do you fuck cows?”
The precise occasion, when it arrives, is not any much less foolish, although virtually everybody concerned treats it with grave seriousness. “I know why they call this shit a slave auction,” one participant remarks, and there is one thing dehumanizing about the way in which gamers are dressed down and poked and prodded whereas medical professionals and sports activities professionals mingle and gawk. These evaluations aren’t uniformly good predictors, in fact; loads of research have questioned the reliability of utilizing 40-yard sprint instances to find out skilled success, for instance, and psychological evaluations just like the Wonderlic take a look at Aaron fails aren’t at all times helpful. Still, Aaron’s rating does level to his social immaturity, and information does counsel that players who score below the mean are twice as likely to be arrested.
With his combined outcomes, loads rides on Aaron’s massive interview. At first, he nails it, answering questions with heat and humor but in addition taking his interviewers severely. He even cites Tim Tebow’s affect in serving to him discover a new path with Christianity, liable for his getting clear. Aaron solely stumbles when his father comes up in dialog. Just saying he desires to honor his dad summons a hallucination of Dennis Hernandez, calling him the slurs you’d anticipate and saying, “You disgust me.” It leaves Aaron trying a bit emotionally unstable, and his destiny going ahead is unclear.
Beyond the soccer stuff, there are two focuses right here on a personality degree. Obviously, the primary is Aaron’s sexuality, which stays a central piece of his wrestle. “Birthday Money” introduces a brand new love curiosity for him, a composite character named Chris (performed by Jake Cannavale, son of Bobby) who’s a bodily therapist at Murphy’s company. On his first assembly with Aaron, Chris says he moved right here from Hartford however stayed in California as a result of “people are just more chill,” hinting that he and Aaron are on the identical web page.
You can see the place that is going from the second Chris first seems: a number of erotic stretching scenes the place Aaron will get uncomfortable and embarrassed by his self-evident arousal. During the showcase, Chris units him comfy, visiting him in his room and initiating a kiss (then extra) after Aaron vents concerning the stress he’s below.
There’s one thing slightly odd about inserting a composite character on this function. But I’m much more combined on the primary scene of the episode, a flashback to D.J. virtually strolling in on his brother being molested by their uncle Bobby on his sixth birthday. We know from the Boston Globe’s reporting that the actual D.J. says Hernandez was molested as a younger boy, however the particular person accountable has by no means been recognized. Here, the script by Ryan Farley and Chelsey Lora seemingly borrows their actual late uncle Robert Valentine’s title and turns him right into a pedophile, together with inventing an arrest for exposing himself on a faculty bus. I’d like to be confirmed incorrect right here — possibly Ryan Murphy has entry to some court docket information I don’t — but it surely certain feels gross.
Even other than the veracity of the scene, its placement within the episode simply feels off, veering near framing the assault as an origin story for Aaron’s queerness. Hernandez has truly made that very same affiliation himself, in response to the Globe reporting, however the present doesn’t appear concerned about interrogating it or a minimum of displaying Aaron vocalize that flawed mind-set about sexuality (but). When his trauma later comes up in a struggle with D.J. — Aaron flashes again and screams that D.J. was speculated to look out for him however didn’t — it’s laborious to know what the episode desires us to glean from the second. We haven’t seen Aaron lash out at his brother out of any resentment from the molestation earlier than. The episode additionally doesn’t dive deep into D.J.’s perspective, leaving it considerably ambiguous what he thinks and if he even acknowledges what Aaron is referring to. Does he really feel responsible about what occurred and like to simply stay in denial? Is he overlaying up one thing he is aware of is true when he tells Murphy they have been by no means shut with uncle Bobby?
While coaching in Laguna, Aaron and D.J. are in a fairly good place, operating performs collectively and actually reconnecting as brothers. (“Dad would be proud,” D.J. tells him, precisely what Aaron has at all times wished to listen to.) But their dynamic will get dicey once more as D.J.’s skilled jealousy rears its head. He’s hoping Murphy may help him discover a gig as a apply squad quarterback, however one of the best Murphy can give you is a spot on the teaching employees for a workforce in Berlin. It’s laborious to not really feel for the man when he factors out the hole in profession choices between himself and his brother — and the irony of D.J.’s spotless report making no distinction.
He will get even pettier about it as soon as the draft has begun, throughout the identical struggle the place the molestation implicitly comes up. D.J. is so clearly coming from a spot of envy — “It should’ve been me” actually lays all of it on the market — but it surely’s true that Aaron has no appreciation for the leniency he has been afforded. Yes, he was handed over within the first three rounds and is perhaps handed over altogether, which sucks. But he’s misguided in lashing out and blaming D.J. and Murphy when he is aware of he solely has himself responsible. Even now, only a few individuals are satisfied that Aaron is actually prepared for this.
As at all times, Aaron escapes the career-ending penalties he fears, this time because of Patriots head coach Bill Belichick and proprietor Robert Kraft’s mistaken perception that drafting him is all upside and little danger. The “Gladiator” podcast emphasizes the tragedy of this determination: Keeping Aaron near destructive influences at house is presumably the worst alternative for him when he may profit most from a reset. But “Birthday Money” ends on an upswing, with D.J. listening to Aaron’s title on TV and shedding his shit, yelling the information to Terri and bolting exterior to satisfy Aaron sprinting over from his cousin’s place. The pleasure of watching them put aside their baggage and embrace on the street, one brother feeling genuinely comfortable for the opposite, is downright infectious.
In a present that proceeds by means of Aaron’s life so sequentially, ditching characters as they lose relevance, it’s useful to have a core relationship to put money into and return to all through all ten episodes. There are components of this brotherly relationship that also aren’t totally fleshed out, however the resentment combined with love and camaraderie make it essentially the most plausible character dynamic on this present — and make this installment the strongest but, regardless of any questions its raises.
• The present by no means exhibits any breakup with Aaron’s school girlfriend, but it surely additionally by no means actually handled her as a significant character within the first place. In this episode, he runs into Shayanna on the grocery retailer, setting them as much as get again collectively.
• NFL Europe was dissolved in 2007, so what German workforce was Murphy suggesting for D.J.?
• Nice to get slightly follow-up on the place Tim and Maurkice ended up, contemplating they’ve understandably disappeared from the present by now, and I preferred seeing Aaron’s pleasure for his mates. At this level, I’m fairly offered on Josh Andrés Rivera’s efficiency, particularly within the moments once you see his candy, youthful aspect.
