Very early this morning, CFT contributor and two-time Olympic bobsledding bronze medalist Keith Arnold noted a report from the Boston Globe which stated that Aaron Hernandez failed multiple drug tests while at Florida, causing the ex-Gator tight end to tumble to the fourth round of the NFL draft.
This afternoon, Hernandez has publicly denied the Globe report. At least the multiple part of it.
In a statement issued by the new member of the New England Patriots, Hernandez repeated claims made by a source in the Globe story that it was a single drug test that he failed during his time in Gainesville.
“Leading up to the draft, I provided every interested NFL team with all the information asked of me about football and my personal life,” Hernandez said in a statement released through the Patriots organization. “I was as candid as I could possibly be about everything, including my one single violation of the team’s substance testing policy over the course of three years at the University of Florida.
“That is why I was very surprised and disappointed by the recent inaccurate report of additional violations. I regret what happened, I learned from it and will make better decisions going forward. I couldn’t be more excited about beginning my NFL career and representing the New England Patriots well.”
Regardless of whether or not it was one failed drug test or multiple ones, the rumors of the latter were out there before the draft amongst NFL teams and contributed to Hernandez’s draft stock going up in smoke.
(See what I did there?)
