LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- On Thursday night, a Louisville man will find out if his father makes the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Jim Tyrer would've likely been inducted 45 years ago, but, between being nominated and the final vote, a deadly tragedy that has remained a mystery for decades changed everything.

Brad Tyrer, of Louisville, watched his dad become a legend in the NFL — a six-time first team All Pro with the Kansas City Chiefs and a Super Bowl winner in 1970.

"We'd go out to dinner as a family. He was very recognizable," Brad Tyrer remembers of his dad. "People would just ... he would just sign autographs."

They were an All-American family until everything changed in an instant on Sept. 15, 1980.

"He came to my bedroom at about 9 o'clock and he had a talk with me that you would have with your kids if you knew you were never going to see them again," Brad Tyrer said.

As a typical teenager, Brad Tyrer didn't really get the message. But, a short time later, his father shot and killed his mother and then himself.

"The man who committed the murder-suicide was not the man we knew as our father," Brad Tyrer's sister said in the documentary.

Jim Tyrer's story will soon be told in a three-part documentary, because, now, the picture is much clearer. For a decade, the NFL has admitted many players suffered from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE, a brain disorder caused by repeated head injuries.

Jim Tyrer had such a big head that padding was often removed from his helmet. Back then, NFL defensive players could slap a lineman's head and jam them in the chin, and offensive tackles like Jim Tyrer used their heads to block.

His doctor back then now says he's certain he had CTE brain damage.

"I mean, if it walks like a duck and it quacks and water runs off its back and its name is Daffy, it's not a zebra," the doctor said in the documentary.

The NFL's recognition of CTE has led to many changes in the rules trying to protect player's heads. But has it changed enough to allow Jim Tyrer to join the Hall of Fame?

He made the cut from almost 200 to the final five, and he needs 80 percent to vote for him to get into the Hall of Fame.

For five years, Kevin Allen has worked on the documentary "Beneath the Shadow," telling the compelling story of how Jim Tyrer had completely changed because of CTE.

"He's moved along in the voting process because there have been a handful of very conscientious voters who finally said there's no plausible deniability anymore, where it's obvious what happened, and I'm not good with it," Allen said.

"It's more convenient to forget this man, but guess what, none of this is convenient for the kids. They've been through more than any PR department in the NFL has ever been through, and the entire Tyrer family forgave Jim within days of the murder suicide."

The family never campaigned for Jim Tyrer to get into the Hall of Fame, but Allen's work on the documentary has opened eyes in the NFL to brain injury.

"I was so fortunate to have two great parents for 17 years," Brad Tyrer said. "I mean so many people have terrible parents for their whole life."

"People have been telling me that they are going to pray that he gets in and my response is that I don't ask that they pray the he gets in, I ask them that whatever the outcome, that somehow God gets glorified," Brad Tyrer said.

The final vote will be revealed Thursday night at a theater in New Orleans. To get inducted, a candidate needs 80% of the selection committees' votes.

The documentary will air in a few months on a yet to be determined streaming service.

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