John Elway’s 911 call after deadly La Quinta golf cart accident released; NFL legend won’t be charged
KESQ News Team
Update – 6:00 p.m. – 7/14/25
On Monday, News Channel 3 obtained a redacted version of the 911 call.
“John. Elway. John, tell me exactly what happened. They were on a golf cart, and he fell off the golf cart. And it’s got a head.
That I just want to confirm. Did he did that golf cart run into anything or they just fall out of it and. No, it fell out of. They’re all back and it fell off the golf cart. Yeah. Okay. Are there any chemicals? Are there hazards involved there?
Yes. Okay. Is anyone trapped or pinned? What?”
Original Report – 10:05 a.m. – 7/14/25
LA QUINTA, Calif. (KESQ) – Former NFL quarterback John Elway will not be charged in the April death of his friend and business partner Jeffrey Sperbeck, who fell from a golf cart Elway was driving at an after party event for the Stagecoach County Musical Festival, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said this weekend.
“It’s over,” Bianco told Denver’s 9News on Friday. “We’ve talked to everyone involved and we found nothing new. There was nothing criminal, it was what we’ve been saying all along that this was — a tragic accident.”
Sperbeck, 62, of San Clemente suffered a traumatic head injury on the night of April 28 at the Madison Club in La Quinta when he hit his head on the pavement after falling from the golf cart. The sports agent and longtime friend of Elway was taken to Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs and placed on life support.
The Riverside County Coroner’s Office said that he succumbed to the “blunt head trauma” injury just after 1 a.m. on April 30.
“The manner of death is `accident,’ and the mode of death — how the injury occurred — is `passenger fell from golf cart,”’ the agency said in a statement.
Elway was questioned by sheriff’s deputies but not arrested.
Sperbeck and Elway teamed up in 1990, when the victim became the athlete’s NFL agent, while Elway was quarterback for the Denver Broncos. The two-time Super Bowl champion hung up his jersey in 1998, ultimately serving as the team’s general manager, then later as a consultant. He retired altogether in 2023.
The two men partnered in a winery venture in 2013, according to reports.