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Depression almost ended the life of ex-NFL QB Erik Kramer. A sham marriage and alleged theft threatened to break him again.

Erik Kramer sat on the edge of a Southern California motel room bed, pressed a pistol under his jaw and pulled the trigger.

“I thought that would be the end,” Kramer said. “That was the day I tried to execute myself.”

It didn’t work.

Instead, the former NFL quarterback for the Chicago Bears and Detroit Lions was left with a severe bi-frontal lobe injury. He was alive though. That was five years ago, Aug. 18, 2015.

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.