A feature piece in the latest issue of Rolling Stones magazine, out on newsstands Aug. 30, provided a detailed investigation into the life of accused murderer and former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez including his gang affiliations.

Titled A Gangster in the Huddle, the story traces Hernandez's life from high school football star to paranoid NFL player, to a murder suspect. Contributing editor Paul Solotaroff interviewed Hernandez's family friends, high school teammates and NFL sources for the article.

One revelation in the piece was that Hernandez surrounded himself with a group of gangsters, and cut himself off from his family and teammates. He was also so paranoid over the last year and feared for his life that he carried a gun wherever he went, the report said citing "those friends, who insisted they not be named."

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The report added that Hernandez flew to the 2013 NFL Combine to see Patriots coach Bill Belichick and tell him that the tight end felt his life was in danger.

"According to a source close to Hernandez," he flew to the NFL Combine in Indianapolis in February 2013 "and confided to Belichick that his life was in danger," the report stated. "Hernandez was trying to break away from the gangsters he'd befriended. He worried 'they were actually trying to kill him,' says the source."

Two previous Patriots beat writers confirmed the conversation between Belichick and Hernandez: Sports Illustrated senior writer Greg A. Bedard, and Albert Breer of NFL.com, Dallas Morning News and 98.5 The Sports Hub. The former told a CBS Sports writer via Twitter that the talk did in fact take place.

Hernandez is scheduled for a Sept. 6 arraignment in Massachussets Superior Court on first-degree murder charges regarding the death of his friend Odin Lloyd. The late, semi-professional football player from Boston was dating the sister of Hernandez's fiancee, Shayanna Jenkins.

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