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John Elway’s longtime friend, agent and business partner Jeff Sperbeck unexpectedly passed away last week after suffering a head injury when he fell off a golf cart being driven by Elway. This week, more details have emerged about the timeline of events on that day, as well as the agent’s official cause of death.
According to 9 News, John Elway, his girlfriend, his son Jack and his wife, Jeff Sperbeck and his wife, and their friends left a private function at Madison Club in La Quinta. It had initially been reported that the accident occurred when they were leaving the Stagecoach country music festival in Indio.
The fatal accident reportedly occurred when a total of 10 to 15 people were traveling in a caravan of three or four golf carts to Elway’s house about a quarter-mile away. John Elway’s son Jack and his group were in the first golf cart, while Elway was driving a cart and playing music at the rear of the caravan. Jeff Sperbeck’s wife Cori and John Elway’s girlfriend were seated up from with the Hall of Fame quarterback. Jeff Sperbeck and Johnny Devenanzio, known by his stage name Johnny Bananas, were standing on the back of the cart.
According to sources, there was no swerving or horseplay, no one was drunk, and the golf cart didn’t hit anything. The 62-year-old Sperbeck reportedly just fell straight back and hit his head on the ground.
The Riverside County Sheriff’s Office, which did not respond to the scene of the accident because it was a medical emergency call, wrote on social media, “There is nothing to indicate that this is anything more than a tragic accident.”
On Friday, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office told TMZ that the Coroner’s Bureau officially ruled Jeff Sperbeck’s death an accident. His cuase of death was also officially ruled as blunt head trauma. They are still awaiting the results of a toxicology test before filing a final report.