The death of John Elway’s longtime friend and business partner following a fall from a golf cart Elway was driving last weekend in California appears to be a “tragic accident,” according to the local sheriff.
Denver7 Investigates reported earlier this week that Elway was driving the cart when Sperbeck fell off around 7 p.m. local time last Saturday. Sperbeck had been on life support at the Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs before he died just after 1 a.m. Wednesday.
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco told Denver7’s media partners at The Denver Post that first responders did not immediately contact the sheriff’s office to investigate after receiving the 911 call about the accident.
The sheriff’s office told Denver7 Investigates that it didn’t learn about the accident until Monday afternoon. Bianco told The Post there was “nothing we have found” to suggest law enforcement should have been involved from the outset.
“While the investigation is not yet completed, there is nothing we have learned to indicate this is anything other than a tragic accident,” Bianco said in a statement obtained by Denver7.
Biano also told The Post there was no evidence suggesting Elway was inebriated, according to first responders at the scene.
A statement by Elway obtained by ESPN did not speak to his involvement in the crash.
“I am absolutely devastated and heartbroken by the passing of my close friend, business partner and agent Jeff Sperbeck,” it read in part. “There are no words to truly express the profound sadness I feel with the sudden loss of someone who has meant so much to me.”
Sperbeck was a longtime business partner of Elway's, first serving as his agent and later taking over his business activities, according to Sperbeck's biography on the website for 7Cellars winery, which the pair started together in 2013. He represented more than 100 NFL players over three decades as an NFL agent, according to the site.
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