The Facts: Following up on a previous item. ... The Hernandez situation remains fluid and confusing. Both SI.com and ABC reported that police are searching Hernandez’s North Attleboro home. The investigation was sparked by the discovery of the body of a Hernandez “associate” in the vicinity of a car rented to Hernandez, roughly a mile from his residence. According to ABC, a pair of Hernandez’s friends tried to leave the home during the search, but were stopped by police at the end of the driveway leading to the structure. Per SI.com, both were taken away by police, but not handcuffed.

Diehards Line:The Patriots, who don’t usually say much of anything, have remained true to form. “I am aware of the reports, but I do not anticipate that we will be commenting publicly during an ongoing police investigation,” Patriots spokesman Stacey James said in a statement. As PFT's Mike Florio notes, Hernandez, who according to ABC wasn't cooperating with authorities, repeatedly has been described as not a suspect, but it’s unusual to say the least that the home of someone who isn’t suspected of committing a crime would be searched. And according to Florio, that's the key fact here. Even though there currently is no reason to believe Hernandez committed a crime, the authorities were able to persuade a judge that the house potentially contains something that would help find the killer. ... Remember: Hernandez was already spending the offseason dealing with recovery from arthroscopic shoulder surgery. Now we can apparently add being part of a murder investigation -- and not cooperating (really?) -- to the list. As Florio suggested, it's generally a good idea to be cooperative with police when there’s no reason to not be. ... Stay tuned.