By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
The worlds of the NFL and of bicycling met tragically this week when New York Jets assistant coach Greg Knapp, a former Raiders offensive coordinator, was killed by a motorist while bicycling in Contra Costa County east of Oakland, California this week.
Knapp was a longtime 26-year assistant NFL coach and offensive coordinator for several teams who enjoyed bicycling. He was bicycling in a bike lane in San Ramon, California when he was struck by a motorist Saturday and he died from those injuries Thursday. The married 58-year-old former quarterback from Sacramento State had three daughters.
The news struck people hard at the NFL teams that had hired Knapp because of his quarterback and offensive coaching skills. He was hired by the New York Jets for the 2021 season after working for the 49ers (1995-2003), Falcons (2004-06), Raiders (2007-08), Seahawks (2009), Texans (2010-11), Raiders (2012), Broncos (2013-16), Falcons (2018-20). He was the former offensive coordinator for most of those teams and specialized in quarterback play. Knapp joined head coach Robert Saleh’s Jets staff in January as a passing game specialist.
Knapp’s family issued this statement through the Jets:
On Saturday, July 17th, 2021, Greg was struck by a car while riding his bicycle, and was rendered unconscious immediately. Greg never regained consciousness. He was surrounded by his mom, his wife, his 3 daughters, and his brother.
Greg spent 33 years coaching football, the first 9 at Sacramento State (where he also played QB) and the next 24 years in the NFL as an Offensive Coordinator and Quarterback Coach. He coached hundreds of players, including: Steve Young, Jeff Garcia, Rick Mirer, Matt Schaub, Michael Vick, Peyton Manning, Matt Ryan, and most recently Zach Wilson.
Those of us who were so blessed to have known him, know that he would have wanted even this moment to be a teachable one. So this is it…”Live every day as if it’s your last, and love those around you like it won’t last!”
Greg’s infectious personality is most people’s first and lasting memory of him. The phrase “He never met a stranger” encapsulates Knapper’s zest for life. He had a unique gift to make everyone feel special, and to Knapper, they all were.
While his family, friends, and players still had so much to learn from him and desperately wished they had more time with him, God called an audible and wanted to go over the game plan directly with him. It will certainly be a masterpiece, just like Greg!
The Raiders posted this:
On Twitter, Mark Massari posted, “RIP #GregKnapp. Recruited me and stayed in my life from then until this horrible accident. Even as he got to the highest level and biggest stars… never forgot his. @SacHornetsFB players/family/friends. Love you Knapper.”
Massari later emailed LVSportsBiz: Coach Knapp recruited me as an 18 yr kid from Vintage HS in Napa, CA. He was there for me (and so many others) during those Hornet years and for next 25. He was consistent, loyal, fair, wise. Exactly what every parent hopes when they give their son or daughter to a coach and let go.
The fact that a motorist killed Knapp hit me hard, too. A distracted motorist smashed his car into me from behind while I rode my bicycle in Florida in March 2017. I survived the violent crash caused by this motorist with two broken vertebrae and a bad concussion and left Florida to start this news website on sports and business in June 2017.
Here in Las Vegas, families of five cyclists killed by a truck driver on meth in December 2020 are still trying to cope with the fact a motorist on drugs can kill five innocent people on bicycles and wake up every morning while they wake up each day missing a loved one. LVSportsBiz.com has reported on this horrific tragedy.
People from every walk of life ride bicycles — and die at the hands of motorists every year. They can coach in the NFL like Knapp or work at the Cannery hotel-casino in Las Vegas like 51-year-old Michelle Weissman, who was killed while biking along Hollywood Boulevard in east Las Vegas where a man hung out a window of a van and pushed her off her bike in October 2020.
I never met Knapp, but I have bicycled on Contra Costa County’s roads and know the Raiders people who knew Knapp were saddened deeply because the world lost one of the good ones. Sacramento State has a story on Knapp’s life here.
More people are bicycling now than ever because of the COVID-19 virus pandemic.
The act of bicycling is inherently beautiful and life-affirming and brings joy to people in so many different ways, whether its commuting to a job, bicycling on the Red Rock Scenic Drive or serving as an ideal time for mental and emotional reflection.
I know firsthand the pain, the grief, the sorrow and the profound sense of loss when someone is killed while bicycling.
We have to do better. And we can in the memories of so many people we love.