Tim Tebow Says He Should Have ‘Done More’ to Prevent Aaron Hernandez From Receiving Racist Taunts During Time at Florida

Tim Tebow looks back with regret on one infamous night in Gainesville lore. In Netflix's Untold: Swamp Kings, the former University of Florida star recalled a 2007 outing with Aaron Hernandez at a popular spot near campus.

"One night, me and Aaron are in The Swamp Restaurant," Tebow said. "As we’re leaving, the stuff that was being said to him was awful. And it was all racist comments."

Tebow and Hernandez didn't make it out the doors before things escalated.

"It was one too many names called," Tebow continued. "Unfortunately, then somebody got injured."

All these years later, Tebow candidly expressed how he still thinks about his lack of action that night.

"I blame myself as much for that, too," he said. "I should've got him out easier, I should've got him out faster. I should have done more."

As for what exactly happened, the Orlando Sentinel unearthed a 2007 police report indicating that Hernandez punched a bouncer in the head and caused a broken ear drum after he allegedly refused to pay for his drinks.

The police report wasn't uncovered until 2013, which begs the question: What took so long?

"The famous story about Aaron Hernandez slugging the guy at The Swamp, we never got police reports on it," former Gainesville Sun columnist Pat Dooley said in Swamp Kings. "It just ended up getting fixed. It went away. Things went away back then."

Dooley explained that the school had an attorney in town whose job it was to "fix problems."

"But if you've got kids, fixing it is not always the answer," Dooley continued. "They'll probably get in trouble again."

In 2013, Hernandez was charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of his friend Odin Lloyd. Two laters later, he was convicted of Lloyd's death and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Hernandez later died by suicide in his Massachusetts jail cell in April 2017.

All four parts of Untold: Swamp Kings are available to stream now on Netflix.

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