Aaron Hernandez was using angel dust, had become paranoid to the point of carrying a gun everywhere and was told by New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick to lie low or he'd be cut in the year before being accused of murder, according to a story in an upcoming issue of Rolling Stone.

Citing longtime friends of Hernandez who did not want their names used, the magazine describes a young man who was protected and pushed by his father in Bristol, Conn. But when his father, who had his own run-ins with the law but had gone straight, died unexpectedly, Hernandez's life teetered between great accomplishments on the field and trouble off it.

He escaped scrapes with the law while a star player at Florida and even convinced the Patriots he was worth drafting, but especially after signing his five-year, $40 million contract extension in 2012, Hernandez hung out almost exclusively with a rough crowd.

Friends called the people gangsters, and even Hernandez expressed concern, according to the magazine. In February, according to the report, he flew to the NFL combine in Indianapolis to tell Belichick that his life was in danger. He had been carrying a gun, fearing that the people he had been hanging out with were going to kill him.