All teams have criminals and gang affiliated members on them. Now, I don't want a stone cold murderer on my team...because...well...at any given time he could get sent upstate forever. That's worse than an ACL injury. But....I won't sit here and act like AH is an aberration because he's in a gang, totes a tool, and does schedule I drugs. Party with some cats who work on the Hill or Wall Street for a weekend and a lot doesn't change.
I'm on the "No" side. I don't think it's out of the question that he could be acquitted. If he can convince a jury that he just planned to scare or beat up Odin and that one of the other guys did the shooting then he could get off. I don't believe that's what happened, but with no obvious motive and no murder weapon a jury could see enough reasonable doubt, especially if they still see him getting time on a gun charge. And Hernandez has certainly demonstrated an ability to be charming, grateful and sound sincere about his apologies. But from a team perspective that's irrelevant. It doesn't make sense to bring in players with such extreme emotional immaturity and addiction problems. Those guys are just bad bets. It's not about wanting choir boys. Its about wanting players that can be professionals.
To me, it's like it was bringing in Mike Vick a few years ago. It would take a strong organization to pull it off. I wouldn't even be too surprised if the pasties look at him in a couple of years...but I don't think this organization is strong enough, as it stands. The Ravens, Stillers, pasties, maybe, if things continue for both the West Coast teams, either Seattle or San Fran could pull it off. Other than those, I don't think it would work for most teams...
I don't think you can compare the two other than they were both public pariahs. There wouldn't be much concern that Vick would fall back into dog fighting. And he wasn't as emotionally immature. Vick lacked discipline, but that was it. Addiction and emotional immaturity are simply incompatible with being a professional and remarkably prone to recidivism.
