Kramer recovering following apparent suicide attempt




Former NFL quarterback and Agoura Hills resident Erik Kramer, who lost his son, Griffen, to a heroin overdose in 2011, is recovering from a gunshot injury he received last Tuesday in an apparent suicide attempt.

At about 8 p.m. Aug. 18, a representative from the Good Nite Inn motel on Agoura Road in Calabasas called the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station to check on the welfare of a man. According to a statement, deputies found the man, later reported to be Kramer, with a non-life threatening gunshot wound. He was airlifted to a local hospital for treatment.

Marshawn Kramer said her ex-husband’s sister told her the injury is more serious than law enforcement sources said, according to an NBC report.

Kramer, 50, played with the Detroit Lions and Chicago Bears in the 1990s, and in a recent Facebook post, Marshawn Kramer said her ex-husband suffered from severe depression caused by football-related head trauma.

He is “an amazing father and man. . . . That he felt so desperate for some relief is just heart wrenching,” she wrote, attributing Erik Kramer’s pain to his depression.

The Kramers’ oldest son, Griffen, a Thousand Oaks High School football player, died at age 18 from a heroin overdose after friends thought he would sleep the drug off and failed to alert authorities.

The Kramers have another son, 17-year-old Dillon.

While the loss of Griffen weighed heavily on the elder Kramer, he seemed to find strength by helping others. He participated in numerous local events to educate youth about the dangers of drug abuse. He was also a coach for youth sports in the community.

                                                                                                                                               —Sylvie Belmond



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