An unfortunate update to this tragic story out of California involving former Denver Broncos General Manager John Elway and his business partner Jeff Sperbeck.
Elway, who spent his entire 16 year playing career in the NFL with the Denver Broncos, is considered to be one of the all-time greats when it comes to NFL quarterbacks. He won two Super Bowls during his tenure with the Broncos, and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2004. His impact on the Mile High team continued when he stepped into management and consultant roles with the Broncos (Elway was GM when the Broncos won the Super Bowl in 2016), but he stepped away from all affiliations with Denver in 2023.
Since then, he’s focused on other endeavors, like the 7Cellars winery that he started in 2013 with his former-agent-turned-business-partner Jeff Sperbeck. Below is a post from 2024 encouraging followers of 7Cellars to “Meet the Makers,” with Elway and Sperbeck posing for a picture with wine glasses in hand:
Unfortunately, it was reported that Jeff Sperbeck suffered a life-threatening head injury this past weekend after being involved in a golf cart accident. TMZ Sports confirmed that John Elway had been the one driving the small vehicle when his friend and former agent fell from the moving golf cart.
It has now been confirmed that Jeff Sperbeck has died at the age of 62, succumbing to the injuries he suffered during the accident. His time of death was 1:10 a.m. this morning.
The police are still actively investigating the incident, and according to the limited information released by law enforcement, Elway was driving a golf cart in La Quinta, California inside a private golf community. John’s former agent and business partner – Sperbeck – was apparently riding on the back of the small vehicle. At some point, Sperbeck fell off the back of the golf cart and suffered a traumatic injury when his head hit the asphalt.
Early reports suggest that John Elway did nothing wrong during the incident that ultimately took the life of Jeff Sperbeck. There’s a chance that this can be categorized as a freak accident, though more information on how everything went down is still needed. All we really do know is that Elway was driving the golf cart, and at some point, Sperbeck fell from the moving vehicle. There were no other injuries reported.
TMZ says that Elway was the one who called 911 immediately after the accident occurred, frantically trying to save his friend’s life. The arrival of paramedics and authorities were apparently slowed because a majority of law enforcement in the area were stationed at the Stagecoach music festival nearby.
It’s believed that Elway, Sperbeck and their wives had spent the entire day together prior to the accident at that very music festival (which took place in Indio, California), and they were leaving an after party type of event around 7 at night on April 26 when the golf cart accident occurred.
When the medical professionals that arrived on the scene first started working on the 62-year-old, he was unconscious, though it was reported that he was still breathing. Sperbeck was then transported to the Desert Regional Medical Center, located in Palm Springs, California.
The paramedics and those at the hospital did all they could to save Sperbeck’s life, but the early reports suggested that the former NFL agent had to be put on life support, mainly so that doctors could harvest his organs for donations. Those reports were proven to be true, as it has now been confirmed that Jeff Sperbeck passed away from the head injury early this morning.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the Sperbeck and Elway families.
