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Legal Expert: Hernandez Attorney Bringing Up CTE To Get Money From NFL

BOSTON (CBS) - Attorney Jose Baez says Aaron Hernandez's family wants to donate his brain for a football brain injury study.

In particular the family wants to donate the former player's brain to the Boston University CTE Center. Baez can't say for certain if Hernandez suffered from CTE or if it contributed to his death.

The long running controversy over CTE has been played out in courtrooms and even in a Hollywood movie. However, it was barely mentioned during either one of Hernandez's murder trials.

WBZ-TV legal analyst Harry Manion said Baez is bringing up CTE to get money from the NFL.

"He probably is going down the path of hey, this was a very normal young man, young athlete, and all of a sudden he started playing in the NFL and his conduct, his brain, his neurology got completely miswired," Manion said.

"And he engaged in all sorts of self-destructive behavior culminating in his suicide and its all the NFL's fault."

Manion says it is "good, aggressive lawyering" for Baez to try to squeeze as much money as he can out of the situation, perhaps by provoking an out-of-court settlement.

"Even on moral grounds, I just can't see Mr. Kraft or the NFL, Goodell, ever giving in to this kind of, what they will perceive as a shakedown," Manion said.

Manion and other lawyers say raising the CTE specter at this point is a long shot at best.

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