LA QUINTA, Calif. — Jeff Sperbeck, a close friend and business associate of John Elway, has died after an accident in California.
Sperbeck fell off the back of a golf cart that Elway was driving following the Stagecoach music festival on Saturday in California, according to TMZ.
A source close to Elway told 9NEWS he is devastated by the tragedy involving his close friend.
The accident occurred at the Madison Club in La Quinta, a private golf resort community in which Elway owns a home. According to TMZ, Sperbeck was seated on the back of the golf cart when he fell off and struck his head on the pavement.
It was Elway who called 9-1-1, according to the TMZ report. The local fire department and ambulance paramedics serviced the call. The local sheriff’s department did not respond to the call, although it is now.
“The Riverside Sheriff’s Office was informed of the incident on Monday, April 28th, and opened an investigation,” public information officer Lt. Deirdre Vickers stated in an e-mail to 9NEWS. “At this time, the investigation is ongoing, and no details are available.”
Initially, TMZ reported the wives of Sperbeck and Elway were also on the golf cart, and uninjured, but have since reported it was Elway, Sperbeck and Elway’s son Jack who was riding on the cart at the time of the accident.
Sperbeck was found breathing but unconscious and transported to a local hospital.
Sperbeck had been an NFL agent to more than 100 players, coaches and executives. He was the type of agent and marketing rep who stayed in touched with his clients long after the NFL careers ended.
When one of Sperbeck’s clients, former Broncos and Peyton Manning quarterbacks coach Greg Knapp, was killed four years ago while riding his bicycle by a driver distracted by his cellphone, Sperbeck stepped up with great compassion.
He helped Knapp’s wife Charlotte not only with service arrangements, but in helping to found the Coach Knapp Memorial Fund that promotes distracted driver awarness and reform. The cause includes an annual stadium stair climb by NFL coaches as running the stadium stairs was part of Knapp’s pregame routines.
Before this accident, had you Googled Sperbeck’s name, a photo of Elway would have come up.
It was primarily because of their varied businesses partnerships, from 7 Cellars wine to the Elway restaurants, that this is so. Sperbeck has been Elway’s marketing representative since the latter’s prime as the Broncos’ superstar quarterback in the early 1990s, a relationship that grew into a close friendship.
When Elway was the Broncos’ general manager from 2011-2020, and the team was playing a road game out West, Sperbeck, who lives in Southern California, would almost always accompany him, standing near his side.
