Jack Coan, throwing during the Blue-Gold spring game on May 1 in South Bend, Indiana, is the favorite to replace Ian Book as Notre Dame’s starting quarterback this season. | Robert Franklin/AP
Oddsmakers expect Notre Dame to have usual support despite new-look team, tough schedule
LAS VEGAS — At a bar the other night, Notre Dame football served as a main course among Golden Nugget sportsbook director Tony Miller and friends.
Three-year starter Ian Book has departed, meaning coach Brian Kelly’s presumptive quarterback is 6-3 senior Jack Coan, a Wisconsin transfer.
“What does Kelly have up his sleeve for quarterback?” says Miller, parroting that tavern chatter.
Five-eleven sophomore Drew Pyne and 6-1 freshman Tyler Buchner are waiting in the Golden Dome wings.
Moreover, nearly the entire offensive line will be new. Overall, nine Notre Dame players were selected in the NFL Draft, a record for Kelly’s 11 seasons in South Bend. That’s a ton of talent to be replaced.
Those issues must concern Irish fans, as global a base that exists in college football that has not celebrated a national championship since 1988. Miller, though, expects the usual tsunami of green support.
“Notre Dame is one of the most public wagering teams ever,” Miller said. “The Irish will be included in all the public parlays and teasers every week. I don’t shade the numbers for that reason, but it’s always on my mind.”
IRISH TESTS ABOUND
Those supporters have been making money by blindly betting on the Irish. Cross-referencing two resources reveals that Notre Dame is 42-34 (55.26%) against the spread since 2015.
A win rate of 52.38 percent, of course, is required just to break even, factoring in the vigorish. A $100 bettor, therefore, is ahead 4.6 units, or $460, over that span.
The 2021 schedule is typically tough for the independent Irish, as evidenced by the South Point including nine of their 12 games on the 97 Games of the Year it released in late May.
Alabama, Auburn, Louisville and Ole Miss are each represented six times.
The Irish are an underdog only once, getting four points against Wisconsin on Sept. 25 at Soldier Field.
In fact, over the last five weeks, those Notre Dame lines have either not budged or moved against the Irish, South Point sportsbook director Chris Andrews reported Tuesday.
The largest swing has been Nov. 27 at Stanford, in which money has moved the Irish from 6-point favorites to 9, then Sept. 5 at Florida State (from -6 to -8) and Oct. 9 at Virginia Tech (from -2 to -3.5).
Many opponents will be well-rested, too.
Ace college football handicapper Brad Powers notes that an incredible six Irish foes have byes before playing Notre Dame; no other team in the nation plays more than three opponents that are idle before they clash.
Of Wisconsin, Cincinnati (Oct. 2), at Virginia Tech (Oct. 9), USC (Oct. 23) and North Carolina (Oct. 30), only the Hokies do not get a week off before playing the Irish.
EXOTIC BEARCATS
Coan will see familiar faces in the Badgers, but Wisconsin also knows him well. Advantage, Wisconsin, says handicapper Paul Stone, based in Tyler, Texas.
“The Badgers know [his] skill set and will game-plan defensively to take advantage of his vulnerabilities.”
Long Island ’capper Tom Barton senses Kelly could employ a quick hook, so look for Pyne to assume the reins. “But we all know the future is Buchner,” Barton said. He expects Kelly to redshirt Buchner.
The Bearcats, who have never played the Irish, are the most exotic opponent on Notre Dame’s schedule.
Cincinnati is 31-6 in coach Luke Fickell’s last three seasons. It was 9-0 a year ago before losing to Georgia 24-21 in the Peach Bowl. Desmond Ridder, a 6-4 senior quarterback, is a run-pass demon.
Under Kelly, fourth-ranked Cincinnati lost to No. 5 Florida in the 2010 Sugar Bowl. So maybe this isn’t the biggest game in Bearcats’ football history, but it’s in the mix.
“Fickell will have them ready,” San Diego handicapper Jim Schrope said. “A win by Cincinnati wouldn’t shock me. Cincinnati will never be this good.”
At the Golden Nugget, Miller has seen Cincinnati bet from 200-1 to 100-1 as an outside national-champion candidate; the Irish are 30-1.
Schrope says Notre Dame’s move against Virginia Tech is justified, although he has no lean. He likes the Irish -2 against USC. “Maybe not for a full whack [unit], but a half whack.”
Stone isn’t giddy about Tar Heels quarterback Sam Howell, a Heisman hopeful who loses elite receivers Dyami Brown and Dazz Newsome. “I don’t think [Howell’s] numbers will be as good as 2020,” he said.
HEISMAN KYREN?
Stone pits the Irish regular-season win total at 8.5. DraftKings opened at 9, Under at -125 (risk $125 to win $100), which he favors since 10 victories makes it a loser.
“That’s a tall order against that schedule,” he said, “considering some of their personnel losses.”
Miller believes Kelly could rely on 5-9 junior running back Kyren Williams, who ran for 1,125 yards and 13 touchdowns last season. “At 100-1,” says Miller, “he might be worth a shot to win the Heisman.”
That dastardly Florida State opener, in which he’s seen the Irish as much as a 10.5-point favorite, scares Miller. The Seminoles were 21-29 in their last four seasons.
“There’s just something about the first game of the year, playing at home against a top-10 team like Notre Dame, that fires up a team and crowd. I think [10.5 points is] a little high in this spot.
“But the public will still lay it, no matter what.”
Safety Kyle Hamilton #14 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish celebrates with defensive lineman Isaiah Foskey #7 after a first quarter interception against the Clemson Tigers during the ACC Championship game at Bank of America Stadium on December 19, 2020 in Charlotte, North Carolina. | Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images
Defensive back projects as a future NFL first-rounder, perhaps as soon as the spring of 2022
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — As a way to break up the early-summer doldrums for Notre Dame football followers, one could hardly have done better.
Kyle Hamilton, the uber-talented junior safety with the otherworldly ball skills, recently retweeted a meme from a writer for the Irish-oriented website “One Foot Down.” It depicted a torn-out sheet of notebook paper above a photo of a quizzical-looking Tommy Rees.
“Play Kyle on offense,” read the four-word message.
Hamilton tagged Rees, second-year offensive coordinator for the Irish, along with a shrug emoji.
This simple gesture received 575 likes on Hamilton’s Twitter account (@kham316), which has nearly 6,000 followers. Considering Hamilton was recently named a first-team selection to the Walter Camp Preseason All-America team, that number is surprisingly modest.
Rees, the Lake Forest product who played quarterback for Notre Dame as recently as 2013, played along. He tagged Hamilton in his response from @T_Rees11, adding “(Y)ou know we’ve been on this way before now … talk to your man!”
And then Rees tagged recently hired defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman (@Marcus_Freeman1).
Freeman, who was playing linebacker at Ohio State as recently as 2008 and was a fifth-round pick of the Bears in 2009, quickly got in on the act. Freeman posted a GIF of pro wrestling’s “Stone Cold” Steve Austin.
At first SCSA tosses his head back in laughter. Then he closes his mouth and turns, well, stone-cold serious.
Freeman, the big-ticket offseason addition after a fast rise at the University of Cincinnati, tagged his fellow coordinator and added both thumb’s up and thumb’s down emojis with a lengthy ellipsis in between.
Let the record show all of that horseplay took place on June 9, nearly three full months before Notre Dame’s season opener on Labor Day weekend at Florida State. Fall camp for the Irish probably won’t start until around Aug. 1, so that leaves plenty of time for rampant speculation about how much time (if any) Hamilton could see this year on offense.
A seasoned skeptic might point out if there were anything to the message-board fodder, Notre Dame’s hip coordinators wouldn’t be joshing about the possibility on social media. What’s more, Hamilton missed all of spring practice after undergoing ankle surgery in January, so the last thing Notre Dame needs is to add extra strain by prepping him on both sides of the ball.
Then again . . .
Hamilton was a menace in all phases while becoming a four-star recruit at Marist School in suburban Atlanta. As a senior, Hamilton had 38 receptions for 804 yards (21.2-yard average) and seven touchdowns.
Former Bears long snapper Patrick Mannelly, who starred at Marist School three decades ago and saw Hamilton play several times in high school, has made no secret of where he thinks Hamilton could make the biggest impact at Notre Dame.
“I truly think his best position is wide receiver,” Mannelly said late in Hamilton’s freshman season. “He would be fantastic in the red zone.”
At 6-4 and 219 pounds with speed, agility and deceptive strength, Hamilton projects as a future NFL first-rounder, perhaps as soon as the spring of 2022.
Why not take full advantage of his game-changing ability while he’s still on campus? Especially for an offense that must replace not only three-year starting quarterback Ian Book but his bookend receiving combo of Ben Skowronek and Javon McKinley.
Jordan Johnson, the much-hyped receiving prospect from St. Louis, transferred to Central Florida after getting little opportunity this spring. That leaves Rees scheming about ways to split tight end Michael Mayer and running back Kyren Williams out wide to create big-play ability on the perimeter.
Even if it’s just in the red zone, where Notre Dame has struggled in recent years, Hamilton could be a valuable weapon for likely starting quarterback Jack Coan, the grad transfer from Wisconsin.
“It’s about playmakers, not plays, in the red zone.”
How many times has Brian Kelly said that the past few years? Well, in Hamilton, the Notre Dame coach has the sort of skeleton key that could mask any number of deficiencies on a roster that must compensate for the loss of nine NFL draftees this past spring.
Why not play the Hamilton card on offense here and there and see what happens?
As the ChicagoBears get ready for training camp next month, a tough season awaits them later on in the fall. The Bears have the third-toughest schedule in 2021 as we now know, but the group they have right now could end up being a special one. Sure, a tough schedule may seem daunting. But, […]
Chaz Lucius of the U.S. National Team Development Program is one likely candidate for the Blackhawks’ pick. | Rena Laverty/USA Hockey’s NTDP
As a consensus group of top-nine prospects emerges — with only two goalies complicating matters — the Blackhawks may end up choosing their favorite prospect of the second-tier group.
The Blackhawks’ 11th pick in the upcoming 2021 NHL Draft may end up being the de facto first pick of the second tier.
There’s a growing consensus on the top nine skaters, and that group will likely form the top nine picks unless one of the top two goalies interjects. The bad news about that for the Hawks is they’ll miss out on all of those top-tier players unless both goalies are chosen before their pick arrives.
But the good news is the Hawks will have a relatively clear idea — in planning for the draft — who will be available at 11th and will be able to pick their favorite out of that bunch. Instead of navigating a mid-round domino effect leading up to their selection, as they did at 17th last year, they may start the domino effect this year.
Here’s a rough guess at how the first round might play out.
Lottery picks
1. Sabres: Owen Power, D, Michigan (NCAA)
Power isn’t the slam-dunk No. 1 pick that Alexis Lafreniere was last year, but he’s still widely expected to be the Sabres’ selection. At 6-6, 213 pounds and well-rounded both offensively and defensively, Power is the first of many pieces the Sabres need in their latest rebuild attempt.
2. Kraken: Matthew Beniers, C, Michigan (NCAA)
The draft looks murky from No. 2 to No. 9, but with centers hard to acquire in the expansion draft, it makes sense the Kraken would choose one with their first-ever draft selection. Power and Beniers could make the University of Michigan the first U.S. college program ever to produce the first- and second-overall picks in a single draft.
3. Ducks: Dylan Guenther, RW, Edmonton (WHL)
Many players in the Canadian junior leagues experienced little to no 2021 season but Guenther made the most of his, scoring 24 points in 12 games. The Ducks are picking in the top 10 for the third consecutive year.
4. Devils: Luke Hughes, D, U.S. N.T.D.P.
The reunion of Luke Hughes with older brother Jack in New Jersey would be a perfect draft storyline, since Luke is unlikely to slip to oldest brother Quinn Hughes’ Canucks at No. 9. Luke Hughes has the same elite skating ability his brothers share.
5. Blue Jackets: Simon Edvinsson, D, Frolunda (Sweden)
A Seth Jones trade would plunge the Blue Jackets into a rebuild, of which Edvinsson could become a big part. Power, Hughes and Edvinsson could make 2021 the first draft with three defensemen in the top five since 2012.
6. Red Wings: Kent Johnson, C, Michigan (NCAA)
It’d be a shame if Michigan’s banner year of top-10 prospects didn’t result in one being drafted by the in-state Red Wings. Johnson — a flashy, dynamic center trying to get his consistency to match his highlight reel — surprisingly finished No. 3 in the Central Scouting Service’s final North American rankings.
7. Sharks: William Eklund, LW, Djurgarden (Sweden)
Draft-eligible teenage Swedes rarely score many points against men in the SHL, but Eklund — with 23 points in 40 games — broke the trend. The Sharks need a youth movement as soon as possible and Eklund, the CSS’s top-ranked European skater, would help that.
8. Kings: Mason McTavish, C, Peterborough (OHL)
McTavish was the other surprise in the CSS’s North American rankings, coming in second — behind only Power — despite playing his entire season in Switzerland with the OHL cancelled. He plays an aggressive north-south game with his husky 6-1, 207-pound frame. The Kings are building a quietly impressive prospect pool.
9. Canucks: Brandt Clarke, D, Barrie (OHL)
Clarke, a reliable 6-2 defenseman, rounds out the increasingly clear group of top nine prospects. The Canucks need defensive help, so they’ll happily accept him falling to the bottom of the tier.
10. Senators: Jesper Wallstedt, G, Lulea (Sweden)
Wallstedt and Sebastian Cossa are the clear top two goalies this year. Both are likely top-20 picks, but there might not be another goalie taken until the third round. The Senators are a prime candidate to chose one, although the Wings at No. 6 and Sharks at No. 7 may also consider them — potentially complicating the top nine.
11. Blackhawks: Chaz Lucius, C, U.S. N.T.D.P.
If all goes as expected, the Hawks will choose between any of the second-tier skaters, or Wallstedt or Cossa if one or both are still around. Lucius, Matthew Coronato and Cole Sillinger seem like the most appealing forwards.
Lucius, a 6-1 Minnesota native, is a shoot-first forward who makes sense as a complement to Kirby Dach and Lukas Reichel down the road. He scored 20 points in 13 appearances with the U.S. national program this season despite struggling with injuries, which dropped his stock enough to make him attainable for the Hawks.
12. Flames: Sebastian Cossa, G, Edmonton (WHL)
If Cossa isn’t chosen in the top 11, it’ll be interesting to see where he lands. Both Cossa and Wallstedt are huge — 6-6, 210 pounds and 6-3, 214 pounds, respectively — but Cossa relies on his athleticism and reflexes while Wallstedt relies on his puck-tracking and positioning.
Coronato, the local Chicago Steel product, would be a fitting selection for the Hawks but won’t last long if they pass on him. His well-roundedness, work ethic and proven production make him a safe top-20 pick.
14. Stars: Cole Sillinger, C, Sioux Falls (USHL)
Sillinger, much like Coronato, is a well-rounded forward and therefore a safe pick. He’s bigger than Coronato but doesn’t skate quite as well. Sillinger scored 46 points in 31 USHL games; Coronato scored 85 points in 51 USHL games.
The projected 10th-to-30th range lacks defensemen, boosting the stock of the three defensemen — Ceulemans, Carson Lambos and Daniil Chayka — who do fall in it. Ceulemans is the most naturally talented but least NHL-ready of the bunch.
Non-lottery picks
16. Blues: Carson Lambos, D, Winnipeg (WHL)
17. Jets: Brennan Othmann, LW, Flint (OHL)
18. Predators: Fabian Lysell, RW, Lulea (Sweden)
19. Oilers: Daniil Chayka, D, Moskva (Russia)
20. Bruins: Zachary Bolduc, C, Rimouski (QMJHL)
21. Wild: Fedor Svechkov, C, Togliatti (Russia)
22. Red Wings (from Capitals): Aatu Raty, C, Karpat (Finland)
The ChicagoBulls’ draft luck ran out after they were selected eighth in the NBA draft lottery after giving their first-round pick to the Orlando Magic but they still have the 38th overall pick in the draft to work with. The Chicago Bulls need to be smart with their one pick in the 2021 Draft. […]
Chicago police work the scene where four people were shot in the 7000 block of South Indiana Ave, in the Park Manor neighborhood, Saturday, June 26, 2021. | Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times | Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times, Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times
Two women, both 28, and two men, both 31, were standing outside Friday when a person drove past in a red moped and fired shots in the 7000 block of South Indiana Avenue.
Four people were hurt, two critically, in a shooting late Friday in Park Manor on the South Side.
Two women, both 28, and two men, both 31, were standing outside about 11:50 p.m. when a person drove past in a red moped and fired shots in the 7000 block of South Indiana Avenue, Chicago police said.
One woman was shot three times on the body and was taken in critical condition to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, police said. The other was struck in the thigh and was transported to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where her condition was stable.
One man was also critically hurt with a gunshot wound to the head, police said. He was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, police said. The other man was shot in the thigh and taken to the same hospital, where his condition was stable.
Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times, Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-TimesChicago police work the scene where four people were shot in the 7000 block of South Indiana Ave, in the Park Manor neighborhood, Saturday, June 26, 2021. | Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times
No one is in custody as Area One detectives investigate.
Former Bears quarterback Erik Kramer recovered after he shot himself — and lived.
He’s grateful to be alive after suicide try, myriad trials and tribulations.
Former Bears quarterback Erik Kramer checked into the Good Nite Inn in Calabasas, California, on Aug. 18, 2015. He brought the SIG Sauer 9mm handgun he had purchased specifically for the occasion.
Kramer had spent weeks planning his death. He got his finances in order so his son Dylan would be comfortable. He never had fired a handgun before, so he took it to the range to practice.
During a five-year span, Kramer divorced, struggled to connect with Dylan (who decided to live with his mom) and split with his girlfriend. And then death took those closest to him, one by one.
In 2011, Kramer’s son Griffen, an 18-year-old quarterback at Thousand Oaks High School, died of a heroin overdose. He had injected the drug, foamed at the mouth and passed out. His friends didn’t take him for medical care. Instead, they put him in a bedroom, where he was found dead the next day.
In 2012, Kramer’s mother, Eileen, died of uterine cancer. The two had grown close only a short time before. Kramer mourned not only her death but never knowing where the relationship was headed. His father, Karl — with whom he wasn’t particularly close — had been diagnosed with esophageal cancer that later would kill him. It surprised Kramer how much it affected him.
‘‘People aren’t coming,’’ he thought. ‘‘They’re going.’’
He figured he’d go, too. He put the gun under his chin and fired.
• • •
Some part of Kramer didn’t want to die that night.
He knew what depression felt like, having taken his first antidepressants during his five-year stint quarterbacking the Bears. But this was different.
‘‘When Griffen died, I’d never been that sad in my life,’’ Kramer said. ‘‘It had the feeling of, when it’s here, it doesn’t go away. Even for a second.’’
Kramer’s first suicidal thought came in 1994, his first season with the Bears. He wasn’t used to the weight of a franchise’s expectations.
Kramer wasn’t a starter in high school. He eventually got the nod in junior college before transferring to North Carolina State. He was undrafted out of college and left the NFL for the Canadian Football League.
‘‘I was a nobody from nowhere,’’ he said.
After he hurt his knee, Kramer said, only one team returned his phone calls: the Lions. Kramer thrived there. His playoff victory against the Cowboys after the 1991 season remains the Lions’ last postseason victory. He was part of the Lions’ last division-title team in 1993 and became a free agent during the offseason. The Bears signed him to a three-year, $8.1 million deal in 1994.
‘‘Chicago tabbed me to be their guy,’’ he said. ‘‘That hadn’t happened in my life — ever.’’
Kramer suffered a separated right shoulder in the Bears’ third game of 1994 and started only three more times all season.
‘‘That’s what sent me into my first depression,’’ he said. ‘‘Getting paid like a starter but not being one. I remember thinking that people must be looking at me a little funny.’’
Every morning, Kramer debated whether he wanted to make the turn into Halas Hall. When he did, he wondered whether he would get out of the car.
“It was a dark, heavy, black internal cloud,’’ he said. ‘‘Nothing felt good. Breathing didn’t feel good. Being awake didn’t feel good. Making eye contact was out of the question.’’
Kramer sought help. He spoke to a psychologist and began taking antidepressants. The next season, he threw for 3,838 yards, which remains the most prolific passing season in Bears history.
His depression returned often, but it never again came because of football.
Kramer doesn’t know whether taking blows to the head during a 13-year pro career contributed to his mental state and admitted it’s ‘‘certainly not outside the realm of possibility.’’ Some of his closest family members think it did.
After Griffen died, Kramer again sought help. He connected with another former Lions quarterback, Eric Hipple. Like Kramer, Hipple had lost a teenage son. Like Kramer, Hipple had tried to kill himself, throwing himself out of a van traveling 70 mph, only to live. In Michigan, Hipple ran a center to help former athletes and service members battling depression. He invited Kramer out in June 2015.
‘‘It was the right place for me, but I got there too late,’’ he said.
Kramer stayed for 30 days and still doesn’t remember how he got home. When he did, the gun was waiting for him at the store. He had passed a background check.
Kramer left suicide notes for his loved ones. But in the minutes before he pulled the trigger, he began sending text messages. One was to his sister. Another was to Chris Germann, a high school friend who eventually would retire from the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department after 34 years.
Germann was in New Orleans, getting ready to check his son into his first year of college. At dinner, his phone pinged. He didn’t look at the message until 10 minutes later.
It was a text from Kramer asking Germann to help look after his son. Kramer also told him what he was about to do — and in which hotel he was staying.
‘‘When someone does that, they’re screaming,’’ Germann said. ‘‘They’re trying to talk themselves out of it.’’
Germann ran to his hotel room and began dialing — from his cellphone, his son’s phone and the landline. He tried Kramer’s cellphone, but he didn’t answer. He called his old sheriff’s station and learned a friend was on patrol that night. He tried the lobby at the hotel, a spot he knew from his old neighborhood patrols. He called the paramedics.
When the officers and paramedics arrived at the Good Nite Inn, Germann was patched through to Kramer’s hotel room, which he had checked into under his own name. The phone rang. Germann figured he was too late.
‘‘I’ll be damned if he didn’t answer,’’ Germann said. ‘‘He was moaning.’’
Kramer had shot himself. The bullet traveled from under his chin through his tongue and sinus cavity and out the top of his head.
But Kramer was alive.
‘‘I told him he needed to drop whatever’s in his hand,’’ Germann said.
The gun hit the floor.
He told Kramer to walk to the door, which he had propped open with bloody towels, to greet the officer. He did.
With a hole in his head, Kramer walked outside, down a flight of stairs and into a waiting ambulance.
Kramer was put in a medically induced coma for six weeks and spent about nine months receiving medical care. He remembers none of it. It wasn’t until three years later that he found out he had sent the text messages, that a small part of him was fighting to live.
‘‘There’s a period of my life that goes back before I shot myself, and then a good year afterward where I don’t have a lot of recollections of stuff,’’ he said. ‘‘What I know of my own life was told to me. And that includes the part about the theft.’’
• • •
One of the doctors treating Kramer after he shot himself told him he was so lucky that he should play the lottery every week for the rest of his life.
The doctor couldn’t have been more wrong. Kramer’s skull was rebuilt and his brain began the long process of healing, but his life was thrown into chaos.
It left him fighting what he called a sham marriage, alleged theft by his wife and a push to change the California conservatorship system that he said helped make both possible.
Kramer and Cortney Baird had dated off and on for three years. About six months after he shot himself, Kramer said she reappeared in his life as though she never had left. The two resumed dating, and she eventually moved into his home with her daughter.
Kramer was deemed incapacitated by a neuropsychologist when he shot himself. Looking back, he wonders whether Baird was assessing his cognition.
Kramer was able to perform basic functions and even flew to Chicago to attend Bears minicamp practice 10 months after his suicide attempt.
‘‘But upper-level thinking was something I couldn’t do,’’ he said.
That’s typical in recovering patients, said Dr. Andrew Dorsch, a neurologist at Rush University Medical Center who specializes in traumatic brain injuries and rehabilitation after them.
‘‘Decision-making is always on a spectrum,’’ said Dorsch, who doesn’t treat Kramer. ‘‘More complex decisions can become a little bit more dicey.’’
One complex decision Kramer said he couldn’t have made for himself was getting married. On Dec. 22, 2016, Kramer wed Baird at the Santa Barbara (California) Courthouse. She booked the wedding around the same time Kramer had signed over conservatorship of his decision-making to his sister.
Because of his brain injury, Kramer said he would have said yes to anything if someone else had suggested it strongly.
He didn’t tell anyone at first. When Anna Dergan, his lifelong friend, saw he had purchased a ring, she grew suspicious.
Four months earlier, Kramer’s money had started to go missing. Dergan first grew suspicious that Baird was stealing his money. She first reported the alleged thefts to detectives on Oct. 19, 2016. Kramer told detectives a few days later he didn’t recognize the charges.
Photo courtesy Anna DerganFormer Bears quarterback sits with lifelong friend Anna Dergan.
While Kramer recovered from his brain injury, his trust fund paid his bills and afforded him spending money once a month. He wasn’t one to spend wildly, either before or after his injury. But by the middle of 2016 — less than a year after his suicide attempt — Kramer said his checking account would become overdrawn. His credit card was being used to give cash advances.
It didn’t take long for Dergan to become outraged.
‘‘That’s who I am,’’ she said. ‘‘I right a wrong.’’
The marriage, however, ground the theft investigation to a standstill. In a hearing in Los Angeles County Superior Court a month after the wedding, Baird said, ‘‘I admit to the wrong I did before [and] will do whatever the court sees fit to show that I’m no longer a threat to him,’’ according to court transcripts.
She was told she couldn’t open credit cards or withdraw from his account. Still, it would be three years before she was arrested. Saying he was unable to make complicated decisions, Kramer grew increasingly concerned that Baird was draining his finances, but they remained together.
In May 2018, Kramer put an offer in on a home in Southern California that he planned to share with Baird. The sellers accepted, he said, but the deal stalled. Kramer’s financial conservator — who had been put in place because of concerns that Baird was spending Kramer’s money — blocked the sale. Kramer, whose brain was recovering, said that moment gave him clarity. The next month, Kramer flew to Chicago for a Bears alumni golf tournament. During dinner with a former Bears team priest, Kramer finally vocalized it: He was going to go home and tell Baird he wanted a divorce.
When he arrived back in Agoura Hills, California, he told Baird he wanted a divorce and went to bed. The next morning, Kramer said, he made coffee and went outside to read the paper. Baird, he said, told him she wasn’t getting a divorce and insisted she wasn’t stealing from him. At the time, Kramer couldn’t account for about a quarter-million dollars, including, he said, $10,000 from a memorial fund set up after Griffen’s death.
‘‘I go to put my hand on the back of her shoulder, asking her to go back inside,’’ he said. ‘‘She shrugs my hand off the back of her shoulder and walks back in. Nothing really happened.’’
Kramer said he began walking around the house, collecting photos of Baird and her daughter ‘‘as a reminder that she was going to be out soon.’’ When she put them back up, he set them outside the front door.
Then the police arrived.
Kramer said the officer asked him if he had put his hands on Baird. He said yes but didn’t offer any context. He was arrested.
‘‘They don’t know about my brain injury,’’ he said. ‘‘They just know I’m a guy who got called for domestic violence.’’
Kramer had the $50,000 needed to bail himself out, but it took a day to cut a cashier’s check from his account, which was based in Florida. He spent the night in jail, unable to sleep on a 1-inch mattress on top of a concrete bench.
‘‘I knew what happened,’’ he said. ‘‘But I also knew what didn’t happen.’’
When Kramer got out of jail, he couldn’t go home; Baird had a restraining order. It took Kramer four days to retrieve his wallet from his house. During those four days, Baird stayed at the Four Seasons, an expenditure she later defended in court documents.
The two split. Kramer’s friends and family rallied around him, helping him try to untangle years of his life. In January 2019, his marriage was annulled. On Feb. 7, 2020, Baird was charged with 12 felonies for, among other things, suspicion of grand theft from an elder or dependent adult, forgery and identity theft. A pretrial hearing is scheduled for June 29.
Kramer claimed Baird took about $300,000. He said he spent more than that on legal fees dating to his conservatorship, annulment and defense.
‘‘I’d like for her to go to jail forever,’’ Kramer said.
Kramer can’t put a price on his reputation. His arrest on suspicion of corporal injury to a spouse was national news. He later was charged with misdemeanor battery. Last year, though, Los Angeles County dropped all charges against him.
‘‘When you’re born, your reputation is the one thing you have that no one can take away,’’ Kramer said. ‘‘In this case, I did nothing wrong. It was forgery, identity theft, grand theft, but none of those things would have been possible had there not been a medical condition first. That medical condition is what cleared the path for her to do what she did.
‘‘There was no domestic violence. The day I was arrested, I was incapacitated — and not just on the date of marriage but the days and months that followed.’’
• • •
Kramer laughs when it’s suggested that the public’s knowledge of the conservatorship court system — in which a guardian manages finances and decisions for someone deemed incapacitated — starts and ends with Britney Spears.
‘‘Most people don’t know about the conservatorship court system until they’re in it,’’ he said. ‘‘I’m the only person I know that at one time has been in but am now out. Typically, you never come out.’’
Kramer thinks the system failed him. His aunt and sister went through the system to try to gain conservatorship of his estate and of Kramer’s personal decisions. Kramer said his own court-appointed lawyer argued against it because he sided with Baird.
Had Kramer been broke, the state would have had to pay for his professional conservator. Because he wasn’t, Kramer suspects the system was incentivized to complicate matters to increase their billable hours.
‘‘This is a legal system that’s akin to a fox in a henhouse,’’ he said.
Dergan said Kramer’s experience ‘‘unveiled not only the dysfunctional, failed criminal-court system but also this conservatorship.’’ Protecting him from Baird’s alleged theft and getting his marriage annulled should have been a slam dunk, she said.
‘‘You don’t ignore the family,’’ Dergan said. ‘‘You don’t ignore the friends that have been in the person’s life for 40 years and appoint a complete stranger, and whatever that stranger says, goes.’’
Kramer and Dergan are trying to change the system. In April, they met virtually with California state Sen. Robert Hertzberg to discuss Kramer’s experience and hope to help craft legislation next year.
One change Kramer and Dergan want to make is that when there’s an active police investigation, an incapacitated person immediately should be put into conservatorship, making something such as a wedding decision legally invalid.
We all could be vulnerable and in the conservatorship court system one day, Kramer said.
‘‘I want to tell the world because this is where we’re all headed,’’ he said. ‘‘And it won’t take a gunshot to the head.’’
• • •
Kramer, who is 56, coached the running game at Chaminade High School in West Hills, California, during the spring. The players have talked to him about his NFL career but not about the suicide attempt.
‘‘If they’re old enough to read newspapers or go online, they know,’’ he said.
Kramer, who invested well and doesn’t have to work again, would like to be a high school head coach one day. He thinks reports of his domestic-violence arrest cost him at least two opportunities.
In June 2020, he had a re-evaluation of the same neuropsychology test he took after he shot himself. His doctor gave him an official letter of capacity.
‘‘The brain does heal,’’ Kramer said.
Kramer’s memory has returned, which is a blessing and a curse. He never will get over losing Griffen.
‘He’s a big, kind-hearted guy,’’ said Germann, his high school friend. ‘‘He’s got a long way to go. . . . He’s come so far and, recently, even farther.’’
Through the years, Germann has had the same response whenever Kramer asked how he was. He always would say he was ‘‘better than I deserve.’’
Recently, Kramer said the same thing back to him.
‘‘I went from life being so dark that I thought the best option was to not be here,’’ Kramer said. ‘‘Now I’m the most grateful guy walking the planet.’’
A man is facing charges in connection with a fatal shooting from June 19, 2021, on the West Side. | Sun-Times file
Angel Ayala, 22, is charged with one count of first-degree murder and four counts of attempted murder in connection with the June 19 incident, Chicago police said.
A man is accused of fatally shooting a woman while firing shots at another man last week on the West Side.
Angel Ayala, 22, is charged with one count of first-degree murder and four counts of attempted murder in connection with the June 19 incident, Chicago police said.
Ayala allegedly fired on a 2016 Mazda about 6:10 p.m. in the 3300 block of West North Avenue, striking a 23-year-old man in the leg, police said.
A bullet passed through the vehicle and struck Nicole Osborne, 37, who was walking in the area at the time, police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said. She was pronounced dead at Stroger Hospital.
Ayala, of Blue Island, was arrested Thursday in the south suburb.
Arrieta allowed one earned run on five hits over five innings in Friday’s 6-2 loss to the Dodgers.
If there was anybody in need of a change in fortune in the Cubs’ rotation, it was Jake Arrieta. Arrieta came into Friday’s game against the Dodgers 1-4 with a 7.22 ERA over his last seven starts, making his most recent outing of crucial importance.
Arrieta was able to stop the bleeding on his rough stretch in the Cubs’ 6-2 loss to the Dodgers and did exactly what the Cubs need him to do.
“I think it was just okay,” Arrieta said. “I was able to minimize damage and keep it keep it within reach. … I could have thrown the ball better, though. At the end of the day, would have liked to be better for us.”
There was traffic all night against the Cubs starter, but unlike his last handful of starts, he was able to work out of jams.
The night looked like it was going to go south for Arrieta in the fifth inning and after a dropped popup at second base by Ian Happ, the Dodgers would load the bases with a single and a walk.
But Arrieta bared down and made pitches when he needed to and was able to get a much-needed groundout to end the inning without allowing any damage.
“I think all starts are big. I don’t put more importance on one than the other,” manager David Ross said. “I think he threw the ball pretty well. I thought some areas he looked sharp. Breaking stuff looked really good, a couple of changeups. Just some misfires, but I thought he used both sides of the plate really well.”
The Cubs defense didn’t help Arrieta with miscues by Happ and Anthony Rizzo, leading to extra pitches and an additional run on the board. He likely would have made it to the sixth inning with fewer than 80 pitches.
The right-hander finished the game going five innings allowing two runs (one earned) on five hits with three walks (one intentional) and three strikeouts. It was just the second time since April 25 he’s allowed one earned run in a start.
The Cubs still need more length out of Arrieta and while Friday’s start was a step in the right direction, he’ll need to show that he can duplicate his performance.
“I don’t think the results completely indicate [it], but we definitely are moving in the right direction,” he said. “When I went into lefties with the fastball I was it was kind of pulled across the plate, and then the homer was supposed to be in and it kind of leaked back to the middle third of the plate. And that’s something that we’re going to tighten up over the next couple of days.”
I’m still runni9ng through beers that have been sent to me for my comment. Let’s forge ahead.
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Ballast Point Brewing Co. was founded in 1996 in San Diego. They built up a national distribution footprint with their flagship Sculpin IPA. I encountered it in the Chicago market in 2013. It was a kind of California IPA that explored hop loads beyond the usual West Coast hops, adding fruity impressions.
Ballast Point was swept up in the wave of craft brewer buyouts in the mid-teens, going to Constellation Brands for an eye-popping one billion dollars. The purchase at first brought expansion, with a branch brwery on the East Coast and a brewpub in Chicago’s West Loop. The brewery failed to find the needed “synergy,” though. In December of 2019, it was sold to new investors, who had also backed Kings and Convicts Brewing in north suburban Highwood. This led to a reconsideration of their business, focusing on the Southern California market and closing the Chicago site (of course the pandemic had something to do with it). Earlier this year, they started to expand again, now packaged in cans.
The Sculpin kicks up a big head when poured from the can into a tulip. A slightly tan head sits on a golden beer body with a bit of haze. Smell is light tropical fruits from hops. But in the taste, the tropical fruit is more prominent, followed right behind by the usual pine and resin of a West Coast IPA. As I recall, this was one of my first IPAs to bring in “tropical fruit” hops.
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Meet The Blogger
Mark McDermott
Writer, trivia maven, fan of many things. I thought to learn all there is to know about beer as a way to stay interested in learning. It is my pleasure to bring Chicago’s craft beer scene to you.
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