Former Little League coach hopes Hernandez’s brain is examined

A father of one of Aaron Hernandez’s childhood friends said he hopes doctors study the ex-Patriot’s brain in the hopes it provides answers to his mystifying downfall.

“It wasn’t the person that we knew. I really think that he was sick,” said Mark Ziogas, who coached Hernandez in Little League and watched his son, Stephen, grow up alongside the former Bristol, Conn. standout.

“Something happened along the way — what it is, I don’t know. I wish they would donate his brain to medicine and see if there is something there that would be useful for anyone in the future,” Ziogas added, referencing the potential impact of concussions or repeated head trauma.

“Was it that? Was it drug use? It doesn’t make sense,” he said, “from a fun-loving kid to someone that turned out the way he did.”

Hernandez, who prison officials say hanged himself in his Shirley prison cell early yesterday morning, didn’t appear to have a history of concussions while playing in college or for the Patriots.

He did suffer a head injury as early as high school, according to a Hartford Courant report that said he missed a game due to a concussion when he was playing football his senior year at Bristol Central High School.

But the timing of his apparent suicide — just days after being acquitted on a double-murder charge in Suffolk County — left friends and those who once knew him searching for answers.

“I think there was something wrong wired in his brain,” Ziogas told the Herald by phone. He said he kept in touch with Hernandez through letters up until about a year ago.

“I think he came to the realization of what happened to his life and couldn’t take it anymore.

“He always maintained that he was innocent,” he said, “and that the truth would come out.”

Deonte Thompson, who played with Hernandez at the University of Florida, said he had no answers about Hernandez, who he called “my guy” while testifying at his murder trial last month.

“I never thought he’d do that to himself,” Thompson, now a Chicago Bears wide receiver, said in a brief phone interview. “It’s all new to me.”