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One small step for FX, one giant leap for Ryan Murphy, who’s newest anthology series brings him into the world of sports. That is, if you don’t consider Glee a sports show. The inaugural installment of American Sports Story, created by Stu Zicherman and produced by Murphy, premieres on FX on September 17 (that’s Hulu to you, streamers). The 8-episode miniseries will follow the story of Aaron Hernandez, the famed NFL wunderkind who, in 2013, was charged with and convicted of the murder of Odin Lloyd, a 27-year-old semi-professional football player. While the new project didn’t exactly come from Murphy’s desk, it joins the ranks of his other anthologies, American Horror Story and American Crime Story.
The story of Aaron Hernandez has been told a few different ways, starting in 2018 with the six-part podcast Gladiator: Aaron Hernandez and Football Inc. from The Boston Globe and Wondery, the source material for this new series. Then in 2020, Netflix entered the ring with a 3-episode miniseries, Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez. Across these mediums, the story ends the same way. In 2017, while serving a life sentence for the aforementioned murder, Aaron Hernandez died of suicide and was posthumously diagnosed with CTE, a trauma-related brain disease that affects contact athletes and can drastically affect behavior.
Between these projects and your football-affected loved ones, you’ve probably heard this story before. Still, a dramatized take saves room for drama, real and imagined. To set the record straight, here is your guide to the cast of American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez, real and written.
The Who’s Who of American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez
Josh Andrés Rivera as Aaron Hernandez
The subject of the series, the three-season New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, will be portrayed by Josh Andrés Rivera, who you might recognize from West Side Story or The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
Lindsay Mendez as Tanya Singleton
One third of the most powerful trio on Broadway, Lindsay Mendez comes from the Tony-winning Merrily We Roll Along stage, which she shared with Jonathan Groff and Daniel Radcliffe. In this series, Mendez will play the cousin of Aaron Hernandez who, while battling stage 4 cancer, was charged with conspiracy to commit accessory after the fact for her involvement. Her case was dismissed due to her worsening cancer.
Jaylen Barron as Shayanna Jenkins
Shameless alum Jaylen Barron stars in the series as Shayanna Jenkins, Aaron Hernandez’ fiancée at the time of his death and the mother of his child Avielle, who was born in 2014. Jenkins and Hernandez met as children in Connecticut, dated as high school sweethearts, and circa 2010, moved to Massachusetts together following Hernandez’ $40 million deal with the New England Patriots.
Ean Castellanos as DJ Hernandez
Aaron Hernandez’ older brother DJ is a major part of his story, sharing his experience of abusive behavior in their childhood home. In 2018, he wrote a salacious book about his life with his brother, titled “The Truth About Aaron: My Journey to Understand My Brother.”
Patrick Schwarzenegger as Tim Tebow
Tim Tebow, a sports legend in his own right, orbits in the Hernandez universe, having come up alongside him while the two played for the University of Florida circa 2008. Where Aaron had tattoos, Tim had Bible verses, and where Aaron struggled, Tim did not. The two were said to have a brotherly relationship, but we’ll leave for dramatization here. TLDR: Tim Tebow is very much real, and will be played by Patrick Schwarzenegger.
Tammy Blanchard as Terri Hernandez
Another Broadway name, Tammy Blanchard, enters the stage. The Gypsy and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying alum appears in this series as Hernandez’ mother Terri. The pair’s relationship is; what shall we say, fraught.
The two-episode premiere of American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez airs on FX on at 10 p.m. EST, and is set to stream on Hulu the following day.
