“Losing Griffen was the biggest shock to my system that I ever encountered,” Kramer said. Then in 2011, his oldest, Griffen, who battled addiction, died at age 18 of a heroin overdose while attending a high school party in Thousand Oaks. He was back living near his boyhood home in the San Fernando Valley, just north of Los Angeles. Kramer had money from his playing days and a couple of businesses to invest in and oversee. His marriage ended in divorce, the thrill of competing was gone and there were two neck injuries that lingered.
Now he was done, dealing with the typical challenges of a former player. In Chicago he got a big contract and was a popular starter across four seasons. He led Detroit to its only playoff victory since 1957. His nickname was “Brass” for his daring style of play. His playing career, which saw him rise from the high school and junior college fields of California to North Carolina State to the Canadian Football League to eventually becoming a quality NFL starter, was over. Explaining it seems empty because, “I don’t really have an association with that anymore. It’s hard for him to even fathom it now, he says. “The current me in 2020, is not the me of 2015,” Kramer said, trying to explain the thought process that led to the suicide attempt. (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images) Death of a son and mother helped create wave of depression It is, he says, the story of a man who, due to diminished mental capabilities, was easily conned by an ex-girlfriend who claimed to have been helping him.įormer NFL QB Erik Kramer, pictured here as a Detroit Lion in 1991 handing off to Barry Sanders against Tampa Bay, played 10 seasons in the league. Instead, Kramer said, his long, slow recovery has been a recurring nightmare of deceit, duplicity and depravity. This should be a feel-good anniversary story about a former NFL star from the 1990s reclaiming his mental, emotional and physical health to make the most of a second chance. Lengthy rehab – neurological and psychological – has allowed him to return what he now calls “pretty much like a normal life.” “The worst decision of my life,” Kramer, now 55, told Yahoo Sports of his suicide attempt.
Later, he improbably walked to the ambulance, which whisked him away to a hospital that would save him. The local sheriff’s department had already been called and moments later were banging on Kramer’s door.
Kramer has no recollection, but was later told that despite the gunshot, he was able to answer the telephone when a friend, whom he had texted prior to the act, frantically dialed the room. Instead, the former NFL quarterback for the Chicago Bears and Detroit Lions was left with a severe bi-frontal lobe injury.
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