American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez episode 3 recap and review: "Pray the Gay Away"

Ryan Murphy’s American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez continued with episode three on Sept. 24. In the course of the third episode, audiences watched Aaron win, lose, find God, and announce he’d be entering the NFL draft. Let’s review episode 3, titled “Pray the Gay Away,” by highlighting the main events. 

Spoiler alert! Before you read ahead, please note there are spoilers. If you missed Sports Story episode 3, go stream the episode on Hulu before reading below. 

The start of “Pray the Gay Away” showcases a very different Aaron from the one we see in the final moments of the episode. Now, remember, Murphy’s Sports Story is strongly based on the true story of former NFL star Aaron Hernandez (Josh Andrés Rivera), but several people and events are made up or dramatized for the story. That said, we are not sure how close Tim Tebow’s (Patrick Schwarzenegger) was with Aaron. 

Sports Story makes is seem as if they were good friends and teammates, suggesting that Tebow even invited Aaron to church various times, had conversations about God and religion with him, and help push Aaron in the right direction. In episode 3, Aaron is desperate to change his ways, and his talks with Tebow actually worked. Tebow tells Aaron that “God doesn’t need you to be perfect, he needs you to try,” and boy does Aaron take this to heart. 

Aaron gives up drugs, makes football his priority, and truly focuses on school and practice. Even when his teammates tell Aaron to stop trying to be Tebow, Aaron brushes them off instead of listening and giving in to peer pressure (as we know he tends to do). Again, there’s no evidence that proves Tebow was at all involved in Aaron going to church, but it’s what the series goes with. 

Unfortunately, this all chances over Thanksgiving when Aaron goes home. All of the smoking Aaron quit doing back in Florida? Well, he more than makes up for it with his friends in his hometown. Aaron’s former highschool teammate (and love interest) is also in town for the holidays. The two chat, laugh, and smoke in their car, just like old times. 

The Florida Gators lose the 2009 SEC Championship Game against the Alabama Crimson Tide. Everyone is disappointed, but no one more so than Coach Urban (Tony Yazbeck), who suffers a panic attack that sends him to the hospital. There, Urban decides to not have Aaron back next year. Aaron was hoping to stay with the team his senior year, he knows he needs more practice and, let’s remember, he didn’t even finish high school. But when Urban tells him there’s no place for him, Aaron decides to enter the NFL draft. 

With Aaron joining the NFL next episode, things are about to get intense folks! Don’t miss episode 4, titled “Birthday Money,” on Tuesday, Oct. 1, only on FX (and stream it the following day on Hulu).