Erik Kramer suffers non-life-threatening gunshot wound, report says
— -- Former NFL quarterback Erik Kramer suffered a gunshot wound Tuesday night in what his former wife called a suicide attempt.
NBC News, citing sources, reported that officials from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department found Kramer in a Calabasas, California, motel room Tuesday night with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound. They had been called there for a welfare check on the 50-year-old.
Kramer's former wife, Marshawn Kramer, told NBC News on Wednesday that the 10-year NFL veteran had attempted suicide after suffering from years of depression.
"He is a very amazing man, a beautiful soul, but he has suffered depression since he was with the ( Chicago) Bears," Kramer said. "I can promise you he is not the same man I married."
The two divorced in 2010, with Marshawn Kramer telling NBC News: "I know Erik and I would still be together if not for his football injury." She called it a "brain injury" but did not specify whether Erik Kramer had sustained concussions during his playing days.
Kramer spent five seasons with the Bears, three with the Detroit Lions and one each with the Atlanta Falcons and San Diego Chargers. He started 67 games over his 10-year career, throwing for 15,337 yards, 92 touchdowns and 79 interceptions.
In the 1991 season, he threw for 341 yards and three touchdowns in a divisional-round playoff win over the Dallas Cowboys. The Lions went on to lose to the Washington Redskins in the NFC Championship Game.
Kramer's son, Griffen, died of a heroin overdose in 2011. A quarterback at Thousand Oaks High School in California at the time, Griffen Kramer had battled drug abuse in the past.
"It has not been easy," Erik Kramer told the Chicago Tribune in 2012. "I have been going through a divorce for the last two years. It has only added to it. It has been very difficult.
"But you find yourself and you find faith and the strength to go on. And when you have other kids, like I have Dillon who is 13, there is no option for anything else but to find a way. One day at a time, one conversation at a time and just persevere."
Related Stories
ABC News Live