New England Patriots

Brandon Spikes posts photo with Aaron Hernandez on Super Bowl Sunday

Spikes captioned the tweet with five fire emojis and three hashtags: “#superbowl,” “#SuperBowlWeekend,” and “#SuperBowlGameFace.”

Brandon Spikes New England Patriots
New England Patriots linebacker Brandon Spikes watches from the bench in the fourth quarter of an NFL football game against the Houston Texans in Foxborough, Mass., Monday, Dec. 10, 2012. Elise Amendola/Associated Press

By Nicole Yang

Less than a minute to read

ATLANTA — On Super Bowl Sunday, former Patriots linebacker Brandon Spikes shared a photo of himself and the late Aaron Hernandez, who committed suicide in April 2018 while serving a life sentence in jail.

Spikes captioned the tweet with five fire emojis and three hashtags: “#superbowl,” “#SuperBowlWeekend,” and “#SuperBowlGameFace.”

The photo was a throwback from Spikes’s lone Super Bowl appearance — against the New York Giants in February 2012.

Before overlapping in New England, Spikes and Hernandez played college football together at the University of Florida. When Hernandez was in jail, Spikes made him several phone calls, which were obtained by the Boston Globe’s “Gladiator” series.