john elway

John Elway won’t be charged in the death of his business partner back in April.

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco confirmed what he told the Times two months ago: His department’s investigation into the golf cart incident that led to the death of the Hall of Fame quarterback’s close friend Jeff Sperbeck found nothing criminal. Bianco described it as a tragic accident.

Bianco said in May that it appeared “nothing nefarious” happened when Sperbeck fell from a moving golf cart that Elway was driving in the Madison Club community of La Quinta on April 26 about 6:50 p.m. The 62-year-old San Clemente resident hit his head and was pronounced dead at 1:10 a.m. April 30 at Desert Regional Medical Center, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

“We have not learned anything that would indicate that this is anything other than a tragic accident,” Bianco told the Times in a phone interview May 2.

Bianco told Denver TV station 9NEWS that the investigation has concluded and that Elway will not be charged.

Elway, Sperbeck and their wives were in the Coachella Valley to attend the Stagecoach country music festival. Sperbeck was standing in the back of the cart when he fell off and hit his head on the asphalt, Bianco said.

The cart was designed for two to four people, according to Bianco. Five people including Sperbeck, Elway and their wives were in it at the time of the incident.

On April 30, Elway said in a statement that “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.

“I am absolutely devastated and heartbroken by the passing of my close friend, business partner and agent Jeff Sperbeck,” Elway stated. “Jeff will be deeply missed for the loyalty, wisdom, friendship and love he brought into my life and the lives of so many others.”

Sperbeck represented more than 100 NFL players — including Elway beginning in 1990 — in 30 years as an agent and business advisor. Sperbeck and Elway later founded 7Cellars winery.

Sperbeck attended Jesuit High School in Sacramento and played quarterback at Sacramento City College in 1981 and 1982 before transferring to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. He is survived by his wife, Cori, three children he shared with his first wife, Anne — Carly, 33, Samantha, 31, and Jackson, 27 — and granddaughters Josie and Bo.

Elway starred at Granada Hills High and Stanford before playing 16 seasons for the Denver Broncos, leading the team to five Super Bowls. The Broncos won the Super Bowl in Elway’s last two seasons, 1997 and 1998. He later served as the team’s general manager and executive vice president.

Times staff writer Chuck Schilken contributed to this story.

There once was a time the City Section had the best quarterbacks, the days of John Elway (Granada Hills), Tom Ramsey (Kennedy) and Jay Schroeder (Palisades) all playing against each other.

This fall, the City Section has lots of quality returning quarterbacks, making it possible for them to get some attention at a time the talent level has been dwindling overall.

Let’s start with Diego Montes of Kennedy. He’s 5 feet 11, 160 pounds, an A student and certified baller. All he did as a junior was pass for 2,508 yards and 24 touchdowns and rush for 1,400 yards and 25 touchdowns. He had a 91-yard run.

“I have more stamina,” he said after a spring of running track. “We run tempo offense, so being able to get up on the line right after you bust a 20-yard run or chip away at the defense, you’re in better condition. I’m not scared of putting my shoulder down.”

Liam Pasten of Eagle Rock had 3,602 yards passing as a junior and has his own hair-cutting business, so defenders be nice because he can make you look good in other ways.

Chris Fields of Carson, Jack Thomas of Palisades, Seth Solorio of San Pedro and Elijah McDaniel of Dorsey are the rarest of the rare — they left Southern Section schools to join the City Section, coming from Lawndale, Loyola, St. John Bosco and Warren, respectively. Each has a chance to lift and provide big-time contributions this fall.

One of the top freshmen quarterbacks in Southern California should be Thaddeu Breaux of Hamilton. At least he’s expected to have the opportunity to pass and pass. Coach Elijah Asante is projecting 50 pass attempts a game.

There’s returning quarterbacks at Cleveland, Taft, South Gate, Birmingham and elsewhere, so that’s a good sign the offenses in the City Section should be in good position to roll from the opening games on Aug. 22.

They should remember there’s NFL Hall of Famers from the City Section who once wore jerseys they are wearing. The names of Elway, Bob Waterfield (Van Nuys) and Warren Moon (Hamilton) come to mind.

Official practice begins at the end of next month.

In something of a grand gesture, Caleb Williams stood at a lectern Wednesday to explain that excerpts from an upcoming book were old news. A year after scheming to avoid playing for the Bears, he is committed to turning around the franchise.

Leaping from the USC campus to the top rung of the NFL draft a year ago, Williams aspired to be like John Elway and Eli Manning.

Just not in the way one might expect.

Sure, he wanted to lead a team to multiple Super Bowl titles like those two quarterbacks, whose career statistics were remarkably similar. Both played 16 years in the NFL for only one team — Elway with the Denver Broncos and Manning with the New York Giants — and both passed for 50,000 yards and 300 touchdowns.

But Williams, egged on by his father, is described in American Kings: A Biography of the Quarterback by ESPN journalist Seth Wickersham as entertaining creative ways to spurn the team that held the No. 1 pick in the 2024 draft.

Just like Elway and Manning had done.

Elway proclaimed his refusal to play for the Baltimore Colts after they drafted him first overall in 1983, leading to a trade to the Broncos. Manning refused to play for the San Diego Chargers after being drafted first overall in 2004, forcing a trade to the Giants.

However, Williams was unsuccessful in his effort. The Bears drafted him and he pledged his allegiance to them while enduring a rocky rookie season in which he was sacked more than any other NFL quarterback and the team struggled to a 5-12 record.

Yet he felt compelled to hold a news conference at the Bears training camp in Lake Forest, Ill., to explain why he entertained thoughts of spurning Chicago and instead landing in, say, Minnesota. Williams admitted he and his parents discussed ways to dodge the Bears.

Williams couldn’t speak for his father. Carl Williams told Wickersham that “Chicago is the place quarterbacks go to die,” and consulted with Manning’s father, Archie, a former NFL quarterback who had helped strategize his son’s trade from the Chargers to the Giants.

But Williams made it clear he is all in with new Bears head coach Ben Johnson and the franchise’s commitment to turning around its fortunes. He said he changed his tune about Chicago after meeting with Bears brass ahead of last year’s draft.

“After I came on my visit here, it was a … deliberate and determined answer that I wanted to come here,” Williams said. “I wanted to be here. I love being here.”

“I wanted to come here and be the guy and be a part and be a reason why the Chicago Bears turn this thing around.”

“This thing” is a franchise that hasn’t posted a winning record since 2018 and whose all-time leading passer is the middling Jay Cutler. The Bears’ most renowned quarterback is Sid Luckman, who helped them win four NFL championships in the 1940s while passing for a paltry 14,686 yards in 11 seasons. They won one more pre-Super Bowl title, in 1963, and have won only one of the LIX (59) Super Bowls, in 1985.

No wonder Carl Williams was against his son — a Heisman Trophy winner at USC in 2022 — getting locked into what amounts to a five-year rookie contract with Chicago. That son, now a 23-year-old man, said he no longer responds unquestioningly to his father’s marching orders.

“I shut him down quite a bit,” Williams said. “He has ideas and he’s a smart man and so I listen. I always listen.

“I’m very fortunate to be in this position in the sense of playing quarterback, but also very fortunate to have a very strong-minded father. We talk very often, my mom and my dad are my best friends, so being able to have conversations with them to understand that everything they say is also portrayed on me.”

Wickersham’s book will be published in September. Another excerpt describes Williams as becoming enamored with the idea of playing for Minnesota Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell after they had a predraft meeting.

But the overriding theme of his four-minute opening statement at the news conference was that he is focused on becoming the best quarterback possible for the Chicago Bears. He’d prefer that everyone just forget that he had misgivings a year ago.

“We are here focused on the future,” he said, “we are here focused on the present and really trying to get this train going, picking up steam and choo-chooing along.”