Ian Rapoport is a pretty top tier reporter for the NFL Network. You get a lot of inside information because of him. Back in 2010, when Aaron Hernandez was a rookie, Rapoport was a beat reporter for the Patriots.

He got to know Hernandez a little bit. In an interview with MMQB entitled, "Aaron Hernandez, According to the Journalists Who Covered Him," he says that he wasn't close to him, but they were definitely friendly.

The article interviews three reporters who covered Hernandez throughout his high school, college, and professional career.

At one point, Rapoport had this exchange with Hernandez:

I would end up hanging around by his locker a lot. He would do his interviews and we would chat. There weren’t a lot of guys that were just hanging out in the locker room, especially during those years, so we would hang out and we would talk. When we first exchanged numbers, he called me over and said, “Hey I just want you to know, you’re my guy. If you need anything let me know, I will help you out if I can. But I just want you to know, if you f--- me over, I’ll kill you.” I sort of laughed a little bit, and I said, “Don’t worry, I got you, I’ll take care of you.” It was me and this other reporter from CBS Sports, WIlliam Bendetson, and he was standing there and had listened and we kind of turned to each other and both laughed. And then the first text I got after it became clear that Hernandez was the suspect in the murder investigation was from William Bendetson, who was like, Hey remember that day in the locker room?

 

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