In a span of five years, beginning in 2015, the former National Football League quarterback Erik Kramer tried unsuccessfully to die by suicide, then lost hundreds of thousands of dollars after a woman who arranged to marry him in secret plundered his life’s earnings while he struggled to heal.
Kramer nonetheless considers himself an “extremely lucky man” and knows his “recovery – both mental and physical – has been extraordinary by any definition”, he said in an essay shared with the Guardian. Wednesday marks the release of a new documentary podcast aimed at unpacking his remarkable ordeal.
The Quarterback and the Con Artist revisits Kramer’s victimization at the hands of Cortney Baird and also revives questions about the toll taken on the bodies and minds of American football players. Those renewed questions come after a man who blamed football for giving him the incurable brain illness CTE fatally shot four people at the office tower which houses the NFL’s headquarters before killing himself on 28 July.
The 10-episode series alludes to neurological research establishing a link between the sport and the disease that can only be diagnosed posthumously. And at one point, the podcast host, Johnathan Walton, asks Kramer’s son, Dillon, “Do you blame CTE for what happened to your dad?”
Dillon replies: “I definitely think CTE is the biggest contributor by far. I don’t think that he was aware of what was going on.”
Kramer, 60, played QB in the NFL in 10 different seasons mostly from 1991 to 1999 for the Atlanta Falcons, Detroit Lions, Chicago Bears and what were then the San Diego Chargers. The Los Angeles native is perhaps best known for teaming with the hall of fame runner Barry Sanders to produce the Lions’ only playoff win from 1957 through 2023. And in 1995 he also set single-season records for most passing yards and passing touchdowns for the Bears.
Throughout those exploits, Kramer suffered from depression. And his condition took a turn for the worse when his 18-year-old son, Griffen, who grappled with substance abuse, died unexpectedly in 2011. Things then darkened even more when – months later – Erik’s mother died from uterine cancer and his father was diagnosed with terminal, esophageal cancer.
Kramer finally brought a gun to a southern California motel room and used it to shoot himself, thinking in his ill mind – as his essay put it – “all my problems would be over”. Miraculously, he survived and had enough money from his NFL career to pay for the medical treatment he subsequently required. The self-inflicted wound left him with the mental capacity “of a six-year-old boy”, he wrote. He added: “I could not process complex concepts or decisions.”
It was then that Baird reinserted herself into his life after the two had previously dated and broken up.
What started with borrowing Kramer’s credit card for grocery runs while purportedly presenting herself as “a doting caregiver” steadily escalated into taking up to $700 from him for herself daily, costing him as much as $15,000 monthly, he wrote.
Baird ultimately was brought to legal account after a childhood friend of Kramer’s became suspicious upon seeing packages from the online marketplace Amazon piling up outside his home. They were all addressed to Baird and paid for with Kramer’s credit cards.
The friend, Anna Dergan, checked Kramer’s bank records and noticed daily ATM withdrawals totaling thousands of dollars, excessive credit card transactions and cash advances and forged checks, all of which thrusted Baird under suspicion. Kramer wrote there was evidence Baird had even drained Griffen’s memorial account.
As Dergan called for authorities to investigate Baird criminally, the latter managed to marry Kramer in a courthouse ceremony to which none of his friends or family were invited. Kramer wrote that maneuver was a “checkmate move”, and the podcast explores how it hindered efforts to prosecute Baird for years.
He eventually recovered to the point where he comprehended he needed to divorce Baird. Kramer says she alleged to authorities he had subjected her to domestic violence the same day he informed her of his desire to divorce, prompting news coverage about him that he condemns as “defamatory”. He has been fighting to correct the record ever since.
Kramer finally succeeded in having Baird charged with a dozen felonies in 2020. She eventually pleaded guilty to theft, identity theft, forgery and dependent adult abuse – but only after Kramer was set back about $700,000. That figure also includes the court-related costs incurred as a result of his time with Baird and his push to get his marriage to her annulled.
At an August 2024 sentencing hearing, Baird, 52, only received six months in prison followed by probation, partly because she came up with $170,000 in cash as restitution for Kramer, he wrote.
Kramer said he dedicates most of his days since having wrested himself “from the clutches of a conniving con artist” to giving talks to various groups about mental health and the warning signs of depression. He said he grasps that he defied grim odds, with self-inflicted gunshot wounds making up only 1% of attempted, not completed, suicide attempts.
So he said he has chosen not to be bitter about – and instead derive inspiration from – the events recounted on The Quarterback and the Con Artist, which is available on all major podcast platforms.
“All of this made me realize the truth. I am a fighter,” Kramer wrote. “I don’t stay down.”
In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org.
