EP 3 - The Quarterback and The Con Artist

Summary

Johnathan Walton Media

EP 3 – The Quarterback and The Con Artist

Episode Title: Somebody's Someone
Date: September 17, 2025
Host: Johnathan Walton

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Overview

This poignant episode of "The Quarterback and The Con Artist" tells the tragic but profound story of former NFL quarterback Eric Kramer’s son, Griffin, whose lifelong struggles with social connection, mental health, and ultimately drug addiction culminated in his death at just 18. The episode delves deeply into the familial, psychological, and societal factors that led to Griffin’s overdose, using candid interviews with Eric, family members, and friends, as well as powerful reflections on the enduring pain of loss and the complexities of addiction. Walton weaves Griffin’s journey into a moving narrative about the universal longing to belong, the impact of neurodiversity, and the consequences of missed interventions and misunderstood struggles.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Eric Kramer’s Survival and the Catalyst for the Story

• [01:29-02:29] The episode opens referencing Eric Kramer's own suicide attempt and miraculous survival, setting the stage for an exploration into what brings a person to the brink.
  • Quote: “The question always is at this point is, when we save him, if we can save him, will his brain be intact? And the answer … is not so clear.” – Jonathan Walton [02:19]

2. The Death of Griffin Kramer: A Parent’s Worst Fear

• [03:26-05:29] Eric recounts receiving the call from police informing him of his son’s death due to a heroin overdose.
  • Quote: "All I remember feeling or thinking was, there's no way to turn that back. There's no way to turn back what you just said." – Eric Kramer [04:41]

3. Griffin’s Early Life: Medical Trauma and Rare Survival

• [06:08-09:09] From birth, Griffin was beset by adversities, nearly dying of a rare infection as a newborn, surviving what seven of eight LA county cases did not.
  • Quote: “Eight. Seven of them had died ... and one of them was an amputee.” – Eric Kramer [08:59-09:02]

4. The Griffin Everyone Knew: Humor, Inquisitiveness, and Complexity

• [09:09-15:45]
  • Friends and family recall Griffin as energetic, deeply curious, sometimes brutally honest, and fiercely loyal.
  • Anecdotes about his directness and unique sense of humor, sometimes leading to social isolation.
  • Quote: “He'd be in the backseat, we'd be driving down the road. He's like, you know, who do you think would win in a fight? The head or the heart?” – Eric Kramer [11:07]

5. Struggles with Neurodiversity: School, Relationships, and Isolation

• [15:45-19:04]
  • Griffin’s difficulties at school were eventually traced to executive dysfunction—his brain wiring prevented organization and focus.
  • This led to struggles making friends and accidental social offenses.
  • Quote: “He had no awareness for how he would sabotage the very relationships he was seeking ... Think how painful that would be when you think you have friends and no one's calling. But I could see why they weren't calling. Everybody else could see, but him.” – Eric Kramer [16:51]

6. The Search for Connection: Loyalty and Desperation to Fit In

• [19:04-21:01]
  • Griffin’s brother Dylan remembers his fierce loyalty (e.g., defending a coach) and tragic inability to build close friendships until shortly before his death.
  • Dylan observes the profound loneliness and describes Griffin’s longing: “He just wanted to be somebody, somebody.” – Dylan Kramer [22:01]

7. Descent into Addiction: Drugs as a Means to Numb Pain

• [21:01-24:40]
  • Griffin began using drugs to cope with feelings of alienation and to bond with peers who shared his struggles.
  • Quote: “You want to be connected to people ... Other people who also have their own struggles ... So now I've got a little group of people here that I don't really have to look over my shoulder.” – Eric Kramer [22:31, 22:45]

8. Rehab, Relapse, and Parental Hopes

• [27:47-29:14]
  • After mounting addiction issues, Griffin attends a high-end rehab facility and briefly thrives, but is unable to remain sober.
  • Quote: “The relapse rate is like in the high 90%. My good God.” – Eric Kramer [29:04]

9. Griffin’s Last Night: Making Amends

• [30:05-35:06]
  • The night before he died, Griffin had seemingly candid, apologetic, and hopeful conversations with his brother, family friends, and others—an unusual outpouring.
  • Quote: “It was so strange. It was like he was saying goodbye, dude … all these people that were there ... he went around to all these people and apologized, made amends.” – Dylan Kramer [33:41, 34:49]
  • Quote: “Now, you have to understand, Griffin didn't talk a bunch of around this time.” – Eric Kramer [33:06]

10. The Overdose: A Tragic Chain of Events

• [35:42-38:21]
  • That night, Griffin sought out a group he hadn't seen in a while; a 19-year-old acquaintance shot him up with heroin after Griffin, scared of needles, couldn't do it himself.
  • Griffin fatally overdoses; friends fail to get him help, worrying more about consequences than saving his life.
  • Quote: “I think he was more concerned about getting in trouble because he had heroin than he was saving Griffin’s life.” – Anna Durgan [38:21]
  • Quote: “Right when it went into the bloodstream, he asked for his mom, just take me to my Mom's.” – Dylan Kramer [37:51]

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On irreversible loss:
  “There's no way to turn back what you just said.”
  – Eric Kramer [04:41]

• On early adversity:
  “Seven of them had died ... and one of them was an amputee.”
  – Eric Kramer, on necrotizing fasciitis cases [08:59]

• On neurodiversity and social pain:
  “He had no awareness for how he would sabotage the very relationships he was seeking.”
  – Eric Kramer [16:51]

• On belonging:
  “He just wanted to be somebody’s someone. That’s all he said. I just want to be somebody, somebody. And he didn’t feel like he had that.”
  – Dylan Kramer [22:01]

• On the dangers of relapse:
  “The relapse rate is like in the high 90%. My good God.”
  – Eric Kramer [29:04]

• On Griffin’s final night:
  “It was so strange. It was like he was saying goodbye, dude.”
  – Dylan Kramer [33:41]

• On misguided priorities in a crisis:
  “I think he was more concerned about getting in trouble because he had heroin than he was saving Griffin’s life.”
  – Anna Durgan [38:21]

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Important Timestamps

• [02:07-02:39] The aftermath of Eric’s suicide attempt and “resetting” his brain/life
• [03:26-05:29] Eric receives the devastating phone call about Griffin’s death
• [06:08-09:09] Griffin’s miraculous survival as an infant and early childhood challenges
• [15:01-15:45] Stories that illustrate Griffin’s unique social outlook
• [16:46-17:57] Diagnosis of executive function disorder and its social/academic consequences
• [22:01-22:11] Griffin’s longing to be “somebody’s someone”
• [33:06-34:49] Griffin’s heartfelt apologies and the eerie sense of farewell on his final night
• [35:42-38:21] The sequence of events of Griffin’s overdose and the fatal lack of timely intervention

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Tone & Storytelling

Walton and the guests share Griffin’s story with warmth, honesty, and a sense of tragic inevitability. The tone is intimate and reflective, marked by candid admissions of guilt, loss, and the complex nature of love and suffering within families battling addiction and neurodiversity. The account is unflinching yet compassionate, balancing moments of humor, nostalgia, and heartbreak.

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Conclusion

This episode stands as a memorial to Griffin Kramer—a bright, complex, loving young man whose internal battles went largely unseen or misunderstood, illustrating both the cruelty of addiction and the desperate human need for belonging and understanding. Through interviews, personal stories, and realistic discussions about brain health, neurodiversity, and addiction, the episode offers a sobering glimpse into the high stakes of intervention, the finality of loss, and the enduring impact of a life gone too soon.

Transcript

[Jonathan Walton]

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[Claire]

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[Dylan Kramer]

Your bill, ladies.

[Claire]

I got it.

[Eric Kramer]

I got it.

[Claire]

No, I got it. Seriously, I insist. I insist first. Don't be silly. You don't be silly.

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[Dylan Kramer]

Okay.

[Claire]

Rock, paper, scissors.

[Eric Kramer]

For it. Rock, paper, scissors.

[Claire]

Shoot.

[Jonathan Walton]

No.

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[Jonathan Walton]

This series deals with troubling topics including suicide, drug overdosing, and dependent adult abuse. If you or someone you know is struggling with depression or suicidal thoughts, call or text 988-right- now and speak with a counselor for free. Previously on the Quarterback and the Con Artist So the entry point was under the chin, right? So it went up, through between the eyes and then out sort of the top of the forehead. After shooting himself in the head while trying to end his life, Eric Kramer miraculously survives. But he is not in good shape.

[Dylan Kramer]

Like his head was an actual bowling ball, his eyes were swollen shut. He was actually still missing the front of his skull, which once the swelling came down, it caved in and it was pretty horrific.

[Jonathan Walton]

The question always is at this point is, when we save him, if we can save him, will his brain be intact? And the answer to that question is not so clear.

[Anna Durgan]

They basically said he has to learn everything again and you have to think of him like a baby.

[Jonathan Walton]

I'm Jonathan Walton, and this is the quarterback and the con artist. Episode 3 Somebody's someone. How do you get to that point where ending your life is the only option? I know it Sounds like a really insensitive question, but I'm just trying to understand why Eric Kramer, who struggles with depression off and on for two entire decades, all of a sudden decides he's finally done with life and pulls the trigger that day in August of 2015. What exactly led up to that moment? What was the tipping point?

[Eric Kramer]

Well, there was quite a few things, actually. My oldest son, Griffin, when he was 18, this is back in 2011, Griffin was going to high school at Thousand Oaks. He was during his football season. He was not having a very good experience doing that. And he had been in a drug rehabilitation program prior to coming back to Thousand Oaks High School, and he had been doing well there. But, you know, unfortunately and tragically, Griffin had a drug overdose, a heroin overdose.

[Jonathan Walton]

And on the morning of Sunday, October 30, 2011, Eric Kramer gets the phone call that every parent lives in chronic fear of.

[Eric Kramer]

I got a phone call from Los Hills Sheriff's Department saying, would you mind coming down to the Losville Sheriff's Department? And I said, what for? They said, well, we'd like. We'll tell you when you get here. And so I. Huh?

[Jonathan Walton]

What were you thinking?

[Eric Kramer]

I didn't have any idea what to think. And I knew whatever it was, it couldn't have been good. And so I put on some clothes and I drove over there. And as I'm parked, walking up the steps to go in the door, and I didn't make it in the door and. And the deputy comes out, meets me on the stoop there, and he says, you know, sorry, Mr. Kramer, but Griffin passed away last night. All I remember feeling or thinking was, there's no way to turn that back. There's no way to turn back what you just said.

[Jonathan Walton]

Griffin Kramer is dead. At just 18 years old, his whole life ahead of him, he was an.

[Eric Kramer]

Affable and intelligent 18 year old with an indelible sense of humor.

[Jonathan Walton]

Eric memorializes his son in a powerful chapter in his book, the Ultimate Comeback.

[Eric Kramer]

His interests were eclectic. He loved to play football quarterback like his dad, and Albert Einstein and the late Bears running back Walter Payton were his heroes. Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli and rapper Tupac Shakur were two of his favorite musicians.

[Jonathan Walton]

One of the lessons we all learn early on is that life is not fair. But for young Griffin Kramer, it seems doubly so. He's born June 24, 1993. And out of the gate, out of the gate. Life seems to be trying to take this kid out. When Eric and his wife Marshawn bring baby Griffin home From the hospital. He will not stop crying, screaming, really wailing. Eric and Marshawn know there's something wrong, so they take him to the pediatrician.

[Eric Kramer]

Just the word colic kept coming up by the doctors, okay, this is really just colic. Just take him back, It'll go away, he'll grow out of it.

[Jonathan Walton]

But baby Griffin doesn't grow out of it. And as the days pass, the crying just gets worse and worse. His screams are now blood curdling.

[Eric Kramer]

Now something is wrong here and took him back. And one pediatrician looks at his umbilical cord and he says, hmm, there's a lot of redness around here that shouldn't be here. And so he goes, I want you guys to take him right now to Tarzana Hospital. And so we did. And they did like a spinal tap on him and a host of other tests. Couldn't figure out what was going on, but they clearly knew something was wrong.

[Jonathan Walton]

So Eric and his wife leave baby Griffin at the hospital overnight for more tests and monitoring. And in a matter of hours, things take a life threatening turn.

[Eric Kramer]

I think we got a call about 4 in the morning, come on down the hospital. Right now. We're taking him into surgery. He's got flesh eating bacteria called necrotizing fasciitis. Okay. So we rushed down to the hospital not knowing if he was going to survive. Next thing I know, he's, the doctor comes out, he's out of surgery. He survived it.

[Jonathan Walton]

But doctors aren't entirely sure. They removed all of the flesh eating bacteria. So they leave a giant gaping incision open on baby Griffin's abdomen just in case they need to get back in there.

[Eric Kramer]

They packed it in gauze so it wasn't bleeding.

[Jonathan Walton]

And baby Griffin survives. And Eric later finds out just what a rarity that is.

[Eric Kramer]

In the previous 15 or so years in LA county, they had eight documented cases of this necrotizing fasciitis on kids. Eight.

[Jonathan Walton]

Out of the millions and millions of babies.

[Eric Kramer]

Eight. Wow. Seven of them had died.

[Jonathan Walton]

Seven.

[Eric Kramer]

And one of them was an amputee. Wow.

[Jonathan Walton]

As a kid growing up, Griffin is great. Healthy, energetic, happy, excited about everything, especially sports.

[Robert Espinosa]

His main focus in life was sports. Basketball, baseball, football, everything Sports. A very active, very happy go. Lucky kid. Always had a big smile on his face.

[Jonathan Walton]

That's Robert Espinosa again. Eric's longtime friend and godfather to Griffin and Dylan. Griffin and Espa though, were really close.

[Robert Espinosa]

I'd wake up on a Saturday morning with Dylan, lived a couple blocks from me. So I did a knock on the door. He Jumped up trying to look out the window and hey, can you make me breakfast? And you know, he was just a great, great kid.

[Anna Durgan]

Griffin was a very intelligent boy.

[Jonathan Walton]

Patrice Cameron Griffin's GREAT AUNT he was very conversive.

[Anna Durgan]

He liked to ask lots of questions, as I recall, and very inquisitive. He would get kind of introspective a little bit, but nice looking kid and very into sports.

[Jordan Bailey]

He wasn't shy, you know, and he was going to make you laugh and he was going to make you smile.

[Jonathan Walton]

That's Jordan Bailey. He meets Griffin in the fourth grade.

[Jordan Bailey]

I was 10 and he was 9, about that age.

[Jonathan Walton]

And they are inseparable.

[Jordan Bailey]

I mean, my dad would just drop me off at their house and I would hang out there all day. So we were, we were really good friends when we were younger. Oh, Griffin was the life of the party. You know, he had a very distinct laugh, you know, always playing jokes and you always knew it was Griffin. If there was a kid that was probably gonna stand up on the table and do something, goof or whatever, it was Griffin and make the room laugh.

[Jonathan Walton]

Griffin has a truly infectious and unique personality. Eric notices that about his boy.

[Eric Kramer]

Early on he was, I would say complex in that he was a very, very sweet natured kid. He might have been three, four years old. This is before school. You know, he'd be in the backseat, we'd be driving down the road. He's like, you know, who do you think would win in a fight? The head or the heart?

[Jonathan Walton]

Wow, that's a hell of a question.

[Eric Kramer]

For that for a four year old. Yeah, I mean, for an adult, anybody, but right. So he just had a lot of, for a young person, had a lot.

[Jonathan Walton]

Of depth to him and he also has a habit of saying exactly what's on his mind in any situation. Let's map out this week's amazing destinations and travel tips.

[Claire]

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[Jonathan Walton]

That's not the itinerary we're following.

[Claire]

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[Jonathan Walton]

Bon voyage.

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[Claire]

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[Dylan Kramer]

Your bill, ladies.

[Claire]

I got it.

[Jonathan Walton]

I got it.

[Claire]

No, I got it. Seriously, I insist. I insisted first. Don't be silly. You don't be silly.

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[Jonathan Walton]

Okay.

[Claire]

Rock, paper, scissors for it. Rock, paper, scissors, Shoot.

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[Eric Kramer]

I remember going through the airport. I think he was around 7 or something like that. And going through the airport and there was a woman, okay, holding a baby like mothers do, okay? Where he kind of cupped in her forearm and all of a sudden he says, oh, there's a fake baby and keeps on walking. And so, you know, he just had a great little personality to him.

[Jonathan Walton]

And it's like a one liner, like a zinger, right?

[Eric Kramer]

But to him, it wasn't it was just, oh, there's a fake baby. And did you lay it out? Yeah, it was hysterical.

[Jonathan Walton]

But as Griffin gets older, his inclination to say whatever's on his mind starts causing problems. He inadvertently offends his peers. He has trouble making friends. He also has trouble with school.

[Eric Kramer]

He had great difficulty processing seemingly simple stuff. And I remember when it came time in second grade, that was the year I was playing for the Chargers down in San Diego. And I remember when it came time to reading, how much difficulty he had with really just simply reading words and couldn't really focus, you know, all that well. When he was about maybe 13ish Marshawn, my then wife and I had him neuropsych tested on the advice of a psychologist.

[Jonathan Walton]

And overnight it becomes abundantly clear what the problem is.

[Eric Kramer]

The frontal part of his brain was which controls executive functioning, which is like your organizational perspective. Like, he had none. And so his brain wasn't going to allow him to sit inside of a classroom and focus on what the teacher was saying or take notes or study for a test. Like, that just wasn't going to happen. And imagine how at 13 or all the years prior, how difficult it was anyway, fitting in. But the other thing. Thing that I think haunted Griffin, Griffin had no awareness for how he would sabotage the very relationships he was seeking. He had no idea. Think how painful that would be when you think you have friends and no one's calling. But I could see why they weren't calling. Everybody else could see, but. But him.

[Jonathan Walton]

And why weren't they called?

[Eric Kramer]

Well, because he would say and do things that would be offensive that to them he had no idea that he was doing. Right. Like, if I was to say to you, Jonathan, I've really noticed on your forehead you have this amazing welt that I just can't take my eyes off of. And then, oh, what a great day this is. And then go on as if I didn't say anything.

[Jonathan Walton]

So he was like, brutally honest and didn't have like an edit to like, keep that to himself.

[Eric Kramer]

Right, right.

[Jonathan Walton]

Which I find delightful in people.

[Eric Kramer]

Okay. But like, when you're 10. No, I know. And the other person's 10, they don't have the maturity to go, oh, you're just being honest. Yeah.

[Jonathan Walton]

You know, and they haven't lived in Los Angeles where everyone's fake. And so honesty is just so refreshing. Like, even if it's offensive, it's like, at least I know what you're actually thinking.

[Eric Kramer]

Yeah.

[Jonathan Walton]

And I enjoy it. But the kids at Griffin's school Do not. And as the years pass and as Griffin becomes more isolated, his desire to fit in consumes him.

[Eric Kramer]

And I think the inner psychological torture he must have gone through is his heartbreaking.

[Jonathan Walton]

I mean, friends are everything at that age. Having a group of friends in a social circle and going to parties and being invited and it's everything, everything.

[Dylan Kramer]

He would just say things that just to be funny, you know, and sometimes it would just be awkward.

[Jonathan Walton]

That's Griffin's younger brother, Dylan. How would you describe Griffin to someone who's never met him?

[Dylan Kramer]

Loyal, big heart. In youth baseball, he had a coach, some other kid's dad. It wasn't like some legitimate coach. And but Griffin, this is just speaks to his loyalty. The guy was a little heavier set and one of the kids had called the coach fat or something. And so Griffin after the game just went and punched him, you know, in the, like in the handshaking lines after the game, like he's waiting for the kids clock. And you know, don't call my coach fat. Yeah, no, I think that's a pretty good description.

[Jonathan Walton]

And how old was he at this point?

[Dylan Kramer]

We're talking like 11.

[Jonathan Walton]

Wow.

[Dylan Kramer]

You know, brave. That's what I would say. It's brave. Super brave.

[Jonathan Walton]

Were you guys close?

[Dylan Kramer]

We weren't as close. Which is, you know, the shitty part is because we're just about five years apart. You know, growing up he was my older brother and he was always really tough on me and. But then we did get a lot closer. Unfortunately it was only like half a year before he died.

[Jonathan Walton]

And even though he's a full five years younger than Griffin, Dylan sees how isolated and lonely his older brother is growing up and how much trouble he's having in school, his inability to socialize and make friends. And Dylan witnesses how that all snowballs and eventually leads Griffin to drugs.

[Dylan Kramer]

I think his relationship with drugs was to numb out his feelings of feeling isolated from his peers, not feeling like he could connect to his peers. I think he struggled with being himself. I think he was born a decade too early because what they have now as far as school programs for learning disability is just way more advanced and just better. And I think if he had that at a younger age, he wouldn't have felt so ostracized. I think that he seeked validation from his peers and for whatever reason he had felt like the only way to get that was when he was high or drunk and acting a fool. And I think that's really the illness that got him before. One of our bigger heart to hearts is you told me he just wanted to be somebody, someone. It's kind of heartbreaking to sort of repeat that, but he just wanted to be someone, someone. That's. That's all he said. I just want to be somebody, somebody. And he didn't feel like he had that.

[Jonathan Walton]

One of the problems with doing drugs is you tend to attract into your life other people who do drugs, and you mistakenly believe that those people are your friends, when really the only thing you have in common with them is drugs. And that is not the basis for any kind of meaningful friendship.

[Eric Kramer]

I think just we can all identify with. You want to be connected to people.

[Jonathan Walton]

Eric sees his son Griffin heading down this path of drug addiction, and he profoundly understands the why of it all.

[Eric Kramer]

And so other people who also have their own struggles, they find comfort in using alcohol and drugs just like you do. And, okay, so now I've got a little group of people here that I don't really have to look over my shoulder am I doing or saying the right thing? And nor do you, or you or you. And I think that's what ends up happening, is that if you're Griffin and others, you find ways to get through days that used to be a struggle and now aren't.

[Jonathan Walton]

And looking back, the cause of Griffin's tragic death at just 18 years old has a lot to do with the people he surrounds himself with.

[Dylan Kramer]

I just think that he really cared too much about fitting in. Griffin's younger brother, Dylan, and didn't realize, like, when you're in high school, you think the cool kids are the cool kids, but then you grow up and you realize that they're just fucking losers. And that's just the reality of it is, you know, and for whatever reason, he just cared so much about fitting in with the group of kids that he wanted to fit in with, because those, you know, little punks were the ones that the girls were, you know, flaunting towards and having parties and seeming like they were just living life. And for whatever reason, he wanted that.

[Robert Espinosa]

Once he went to high school, there was not a lot of his friends that he was involved in sports with or that he associated with at that school.

[Jonathan Walton]

Griffin's godfather, Robert Espinosa.

[Robert Espinosa]

So he started hanging out with some of the background. He was very easily influenced. So I think that he got in with the wrong group, made some bad choices. He always had a good heart, though.

[Jonathan Walton]

And it's not long from the day Griffin starts using drugs to the day drugs become a huge problem in his life. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance Fiscally responsible financial geniuses, Monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds. Visit Progressive to see if you could save Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states or situations.

[Claire]

Let's explore the event that shaped the Middle Ages.

[Jonathan Walton]

Honestly, Claire, I didn't finish the research, but I did switch to T Mobile with their new Family Freedom offer.

[Claire]

That's not how we tell the story.

[Jonathan Walton]

Well, I'm writing a new chapter by leaving AT&T and creating a turning point with T Mobile. They paid off my family's four phones up to 32, $200 and gave us four new phones on the house.

[Claire]

History in the making.

[T Mobile Advertiser]

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[Claire]

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[Dylan Kramer]

Your bill, ladies.

[Eric Kramer]

I got it.

[Claire]

No, I got it. Seriously, I insist. I insisted first. Don't be silly. You don't be silly.

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[Jonathan Walton]

Okay.

[Claire]

Rock, paper, scissors for it.

[Eric Kramer]

Rock, paper, scissors.

[Claire]

Shoot no.

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[Eric Kramer]

Because of the drug and alcohol choices he was making, his life was now out of control. His school, which never was good to begin with, his social interactions, which were never stable to begin with. And now you enter drug and alcohol problems to the whole scenario. Eventually that train is now off the tracks. And just for his own self preservation, Marshawn and I got him into a drug and alcohol treatment center.

[Jonathan Walton]

Marshawn is Griffin's mother and Eric's wife at the time. They're divorced now. So Griffin goes away and spends three months at a state of the art drug rehab facility in Malibu, about 20 minutes from home.

[Eric Kramer]

So now you're around a bunch of therapists, counselors, and other people like you at basically your age that have also found themselves in situations like you have.

[Jonathan Walton]

And Griffin does really well at this place. He gets cleaner and sober, and he's determined to stay clean and sober. And he starts making big plans for his life. But the statistics for addicts who get clean and sober and stay that way are not encouraging.

[Eric Kramer]

The relapse rate is like in the high 90%. My good God.

[Jonathan Walton]

So when Griffin gets out of rehab, he goes back to high school. Although Eric wishes he would have sent him someplace else, like a smaller, specialized educational program for kids dealing with addiction. Because the struggle to stay clean and sober is omnipresent and overpowering for Griffin. And it's not long until he starts relapsing.

[Robert Espinosa]

I remember running into him on the road and we started talking.

[Jonathan Walton]

Griffin's godfather, Robert Espinosa, and I said.

[Robert Espinosa]

Man, are you being good now? He goes, I'm trying, but the heroin, it just feels so good. Sometimes I'm like, Griffin, you can't do that. But he was even. Even though he knew it was wrong and he was doing it, he always had a great heart. He was just a great kid. But the drugs, you know, definitely change his personality a bit.

[Jonathan Walton]

But to Griffin's credit, each time he falls off the wagon, he gets back up and gets back on and steals his resolve to never do drugs again. In fact, the night before Griffin is found dead, his little brother Dylan.

[Dylan Kramer]

I was 13.

[Jonathan Walton]

And some of Dylan's friends are heading out to Agora High School, about an hour outside the city of Los Angeles.

[Dylan Kramer]

Then we end up walking down to the high school to go watch these youth football games. This is what kids did at the time. And go play two hand touch football in the other end zone. As the game's going on Kind of deal. And actually, funny enough, who do I see there is Griffin.

[Jonathan Walton]

And not only is Griffin there that night, but Griffin and Dylan's dad, Eric, is there, too.

[Eric Kramer]

I was watching a game from the.

[Jonathan Walton]

Stands, and when the game's over, everyone starts heading home. But Dylan and Griffin hang around.

[Dylan Kramer]

Whatever reason, these group of kids end up dispersing, and then it ends up just being me and Griffin playing catch with the football. He ends up, you know, kind of in a surreal way, expressing, like, how sorry he was for treating me how he treated me, and basically, like, just having a heart to heart. And it was just. Just so weird because it's not like it was prompted by really anything. We're just playing catch. We had just played two in touch with some random people. It just made no sense why he started talking like that and then come to find out he was actually doing that with other people that were there too. It was just kind of weird how that night played out. Like, there were just people from sort of our old lives that we hadn't seen in a while that we used to be super close to. And they were there. And Griffin had gone up to them as well and expressed to them that he was sort of, you know, gonna stop being a dumb kid and turn his life around. And he was saying what school he was or junior college he was going to go to. He was excited to go play football and had this whole plan and that sort of thing, and it seemed legitimate. And I'm just sitting there playing catch with Griffin, and he's expressing to me how sorry he is for, you know, taking out, you know, his sort of frustrations with life out on me as a little kid and sort of apologizing as to why that sort of, you know, we weren't as close as probably we should have been.

[Jonathan Walton]

And unbeknownst to Dylan and Griffin, their father, Eric, is close by watching this all unfold.

[Eric Kramer]

You know, I didn't think it was anything out of the ordinary.

[Jonathan Walton]

You know, you couldn't hear what they were saying.

[Eric Kramer]

No.

[Jonathan Walton]

But you can see them throwing the ball back and forth.

[Eric Kramer]

Yeah.

[Jonathan Walton]

This heart to heart that Griffin is having with Dylan and everyone else the night before he dies is just so uncharacteristic.

[Eric Kramer]

Now, you have to understand, Griffin didn't talk a bunch of around this time.

[Jonathan Walton]

And yet there he is, bearing his soul on that football field to his little brother.

[Dylan Kramer]

So you could really tell he was really trying to extend an olive branch and sort of like, you know, stop being a. He was starting to grow up. So I Ended up playing catch with him. We ended up hugging each other, say love ya, say goodbye. And he ends up walking out the back entrance to the high school. And I end up leaving the other way to go back up to my friend's house. That's the last time I ever saw him.

[Jonathan Walton]

It's like he was saying goodbye.

[Dylan Kramer]

It was so strange. It was like he was saying goodbye, dude. Ironically enough, Griffin didn't only do that with me, but in a sense he also did it with all these other people. At that game, that, at that youth football game that night. It was just the set and setting was just strange. Looking back on it, it was at Agora High School. It's where we played all of our youth games growing up. Could have been at any high school. It involved people that were there watching. Younger siblings of the older ones that were friends with Griffin, older adults that were friends with our family back in the day, that Griffin knew as a young kid, that they fell in love with him as a young kid. And so it was just super strange. All these people that were there that had seen Griffin started out as a smart, sweet, try hard kid to then have all these troubles, to then come back around and say at the end of the night, I am dealing with those troubles head on now and apologize. I'm apologizing, I'm taking ownership. I feel bad for my behavior. You know, I still want to make you proud. So he went around to all these.

[Jonathan Walton]

People and that was all the same night.

[Dylan Kramer]

That was all the same night.

[Jonathan Walton]

And Eric is in the stands at this point watching his two sons throw a football back and for forth while having this heart to heart. And he sees Griffin going around to everyone else talking up a storm. Though he can't hear exactly what's being.

[Eric Kramer]

Said, I have no idea. But it was strange to me that he was talking at all.

[Jonathan Walton]

It just almost seemed like he was making amends to everyone and trying to, trying to explain, you know, his. He had good intentions and he's going to do better.

[Eric Kramer]

That's how I take it. Yeah.

[Jonathan Walton]

And based on Griffin's last words that night, he seemed clean and sober and extremely clear headed and determined. Never in a million years could anyone have predicted what happened next.

[Eric Kramer]

I don't know if Griffin had plans that night to do what he ended up doing. I don't know.

[Anna Durgan]

It was October 2011. It was after a football game.

[Jonathan Walton]

That's Anna Durgan again, Eric's childhood friend, recalling the tragic night Griffin died.

[Anna Durgan]

After that game, he went off to hang out with some guys which was.

[Jonathan Walton]

This guy, a 19 year old who was ultimately charged in Griffin's death.

[Anna Durgan]

They went to a park at this time, I believe he was already. Griffin had already been clean. He hadn't had any drugs in his system or whatever. And this kid shot him up with a dose of heroin and he couldn't.

[Dylan Kramer]

Even inject it himself. He was scared of needles.

[Jonathan Walton]

Griffin's brother, Dylan, a, he only hung.

[Dylan Kramer]

Around like I think that night he.

[Jonathan Walton]

Died that one time.

[Dylan Kramer]

That one time.

[Eric Kramer]

Really? Yeah. Wow.

[Dylan Kramer]

Maybe one other, but that was it. And so they weren't friends. No, no.

[Jonathan Walton]

And that night turns tragic because the longer someone abstains from heroin use, the more potent it becomes.

[Anna Durgan]

From my understanding, with heroin, if you've been clean for a while and you haven't had any drugs in your system or so forth, you cannot go back to the same dose that you had previously. It will kill you. And apparently shot him up with a major dose. And he was foaming at the mouth, apparently asking for help.

[Eric Kramer]

Griffin had an immediate reaction to that heroin. Eric Kramer, almost like in a seizure. Instantaneously the heroin goes in and within seconds, eyes are rolling back in his head. He's foaming at the mouth.

[Dylan Kramer]

And according to Dylan is, you know, right when he. Right when it went into the bloodstream, he asked for his mom, just take me to my Mom's.

[Jonathan Walton]

But the 19 year old who shoots Griffin up with heroin does not take him to his mom's.

[Anna Durgan]

Instead, he panics and apparently called some of his friends. What do I do? What do I do?

[Jonathan Walton]

And the advice he receives ends up killing Griffin Kramer that night.

[Anna Durgan]

I think he was more concerned about getting in trouble because he had heroin than he was saving Griffin's life.

[Jonathan Walton]

If you or someone you know is struggling with depression or suicidal thoughts, call or text 988 right now and speak with a counselor for free. If you're enjoying the Quarterback and the Con artist, click that share button right now and text it to your friends and family. And if you can, leave us a five star review. The Quarterback and the Con Artist is produced, written and hosted by me, Jonathan Walton for Jonathan Walton Media Executive producers Eric Kramer and Anna Durgan. Audio engineering engineering by Justin Longer Beam editing and sound design by Hansdale Shi Legal counsel provided by Ken Sterling from Sterling Media Law. We've got a lot of incredible stories in the works at Jonathan Walton Media. So make sure you subscribe and keep an ear out.

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