ENGLEWOOD, Colorado – Denver Broncos coaches, football staff and other employees spent part of Friday riding bicycles to give to area youth. The project was in memory of former Broncos assistant coach Greg Knapp, who died last month from injuries he suffered when he was hit by a car while cycling in San Ramon, California.
Knapp, who coached the Broncos quarterbacks from 2013 to 2016, was 58 years old.
Broncos staff, including head coach Vic Fangio, rode bicycles to the team’s cottage. The Broncos players were free from Friday to Monday, but coaches and other members of the team’s professional and college staff, as well as other support staff, participated.
GM George Paton, coach Fangio and all the staff from our football operations spent the morning riding 75 bicycles for underprivileged second graders at a local primary school.
All in honor of Greg Knapp. 🧡 pic.twitter.com/5AtHw9IqoC
– Denver Broncos (@Broncos) September 3, 2021
The Broncos were to donate, in collaboration with Wish for Wheels, the 75 bikes gathered Friday to Denver Elementary School sophomores. All students who receive a bicycle will also receive a helmet and participate in a bicycle safety course.
Knapp was a longtime NFL assistant who spent four seasons with the Broncos: two in John Fox’s squad and two in Gary Kubiak’s squad. Knapp was with the Broncos when they lost Super Bowl XLVIII to the Seattle Seahawks to close out the 2013 season and when they won Super Bowl 50 over the Carolina Panthers to close out the 2015 season.
He worked with a long list of quarterbacks in his career, including the famous Steve Young and Peyton Manning, as well as Matt Ryan. Knapp had been hired by the New York Jets earlier this year as a passing game specialist and was just days away from appearing on the team’s training camp when he was hit by a car while riding a bicycle in near his home in California.
He died five days after the accident.
At that time, his family issued a statement: “Those of us who are so blessed to have met him, know that he would have wanted even this moment to be didactic. So this is …” Live every day as if it were the last and love those around you as if it didn’t last ”.