Florida removes Hernandez All-American brick

By Adam Silverstein
July 25, 2013

The Florida Gators on Thursday decided to publicly erase former tight end Aaron Hernandez from their past when they removed his All-American brick from the front of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium and later announced other reminders of Hernandez have already been taken down throughout the team’s facilities.

Hernandez, currently jailed in Massachusetts and awaiting trial on six charges including first-degree murder for the shooting death of 27-year-old Odin Lloyd, was named a First Team All-American by the Associated Press in 2009 after leading the Gators with 68 receptions for 850 yards and five touchdowns that season.

He also won the John Mackey Award, handed out to the nation’s best tight end, for his efforts during that campaign.

Florida’s University Athletic Association released the following statement on Thursday:

We didn’t feel it was appropriate to celebrate Aaron Hernandez. We put together an immediate plan after the initial news broke to remove his likeness and name in various private and public areas in the facility, such as the South Endzone team area, locker room, football offices, Heavener Complex Kornblau Lobby and the brick display entrance to the football facility.

We were able to implement some of the changes immediately and this (brick removal) was a more complex process to complete with our vendors.

The plan was to have everything completed before the end of July.

What do you think? Did the school act too soon or was the brick removal appropriate?

Below are pictures of the Hernandez brick being removed and replaced courtesy of University of Florida professor Ted Spiker (first), Gainesville Television Network‘s Julie Quittner (second, third):




11 Comments

  1. cline says:

    On the fence on the appropriateness of this. Innocent until proven guilty, but also heinous accusations often cause for knee jerk reactions like this. Football cannot come soon enough. GO GATORS

  2. Michael Jones says:

    It seems to me that there will be plenty of time to do this, and it will certainly be appropriate to do it, AFTER HE HAS BEEN FOUND GUILTY OF SOMETHING! I think it’s premature to do it before he’s convicted.

    I know this country LOVES to convict people in the media, but I’m pretty sure that we still have a right to Due Process, which includes the right to a trial by jury and the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. Let the criminal justice system runs its DUE course before UF starts erasing Hernandez from its memory banks.

    • Gatorgrad79 says:

      I would agree that this is a bit precipitous BUT, with the start of football season, I could envision the visiting team fans lining up to get their photo made next to this commendation and the photos being texted, tweeted, insta-grammed and FB’d all over the world – not publicity I would want associated with our venerable football facility or tradition…

  3. Larry says:

    If Hernandez didn’t commit the murder, then one of those other 2 guys who were there that night did. And he would know about it & wasn’t-& still isn’t-telling that info to anyone. So, at the very least, he’s guilty of obstruction of justice &-since he either destroyed his security system & cell phone or let someone else do it-being a co-conspirator after the fact in a murder case. So Hernandez is either guilty of helping to prevent a murderer from being brought to justice or is guilty of the murder himself. There’s no other possibility. I think UF is absolutely doing the right thing to not want to even give the impression that they’re proud to be associated w/someone who’s capable of either of those scenarios.

  4. suedawgue says:

    Yes, it’s the right step to take. Why prolong the inevitable and make it look as if he is still a well thought of Gator? Yes, he was a hero then, but not now. A first degree murderer enshrined in stone? No trial yet, which will stir a lot of controversy, but too much evidence, so why take a chance.

  5. Gatorray says:

    Will his transcript of classes attended be sent to Santa Fe Junior College? Or the Criminoles honor role? Of course, after his conviction! (Remember O. J. ?)

  6. AJ says:

    Fine by me. Even if he is innocent (which would be very hard to believe) he should not be celebrated in any way by the school.

  7. Ken (CA) says:

    I certainly think it is inapropriate before the legal process is complete, and even after that, I am on the fence as to whether it should be removed. It isn’t like a giant statue or something, it is just a recognition of achievement on the field when there was no issue. Should we go ahead and turn back in our national championships and vacate all our wins while he was there? That equates to the same thing they are doing here.

  8. fg says:

    Outraged, pure bs. First he has yet to be convicted . This stems after his Gator career,no relation. If you take his his brick tatke his contributions to the BCS title .V Maxwell I get.This is wrong.

  9. HardToKillGtr says:

    Urban might want this rather large brick to keep in the OSU locker room. It would be used as a recruiting tool for his Thug Recruiting Plan. Patriot’s head coach, Bill B. has already commissioned a larger version for his office because Urban “ain’t gonna out do me on this thing. Hell, I taught him everything he knows about Thug Recruitment.

  10. joe says:

    Since Foley had all references to the 84 Gators removed from the swamp this is no surprise. The man maybe the best AD in the country but I wouldn’t want him covering my 6

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