Leigh Steinberg

YEAR LATER: Family haunted by Corona golfer's death

It was Mother's Day, so Debbie Blasberg was at San Juan Hills Golf Club.

For six years, she'd made a personal tradition of playing the course nestled in the San Juan Capistrano hills, taking advantage of the free round offered as a special thank you to mom golfers like herself.

She always liked the course, and she was in good company, in fine spirits; all was well, except that she finished her round without hearing from her daughter.

Erica always was that kind of kid, considerate, thoughtful, dropping by with breakfast burritos or doughnuts, doting on her mom with handbags or flowers.

Debbie felt uneasy when she still hadn't heard from Erica by the time she retired early that evening. "I hope everything's OK," she remembers thinking.

Her budding concern was alleviated when she awoke the next morning and saw she had a voice mail.

"'Ohhh, she called!' That's what I said. I was like, my heart, I got all happy," Debbie said.

"And then I go to see who called. And I saw Mel, 1:30 in the morning, 2 in the morning..."

The message haunts her. It was from her ex-husband, Erica's father, Mel Blasberg.

"Debbie, there's been a tragedy. Call me right away."

It has been almost a year since that May 9 Mother's Day morning when Erica Blasberg took her own life.

The golfer from Corona was found lifeless in her Henderson, Nev., home. She was 25.

An agonizing, 108-day police investigation determined that no foul play was involved and that her death was a result of asphyxia -- suffocation -- coupled with the presence of toxic levels of prescription medication in her system.

Erica is remembered as charming, goofy, giving, stylish. She was beloved, even as she tried to hide her unhappiness.

Mel was his daughter's coach and her greatest fan, the driving force behind a career that took her to the highest level of women's golf. Debbie kept a low profile, played the supporter on the sideline. They're proud of Erica, of who she was and what she accomplished, even as they struggle with unrelenting anguish and what-ifs.

Erica's story is one of a young woman who seemingly had everything going for her, but who got lost in her own high-pressured life, who felt increasingly lonely and isolated as he struggled with her career and relationships. She found her own way out when she took her own life on Mother's Day in 2010.

NFL Agent Leigh Steinberg: Gabrielle Giffords a Shining Light of ...

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the Democratic congresswoman from Arizona who was shot in the head Saturday in Tucson, has been an active supporter of the state's professional and collegiate sports teams and is "one of the bright young lights in our political discourse," according to Leigh Steinberg, the long-time football agent and donor to Democratic candidates and causes. In recent years, Steinberg got to know Rep. Giffords because he made frequent trips to Tucson to visit his oldest son, who attended the University of Arizona. Giffords, who sits on the House Armed Forces Committee and whose husband Mark is a Navy pilot and a NASA astronaut, helped plan Steinberg's annual Super Bowl Party when the game was held in Glendale, Az., in 2008. Steinberg, who launched his career in the 1970s by representing quarterback Steve Bartkowski, his University of California dorm mate, still represents a few retired players and a couple coaches, but let his agent certification lapse in 2008. He was part of an unsuccessful bid to buy the St. Louis Rams and told FanHouse that he's planning to re-enter the agent business in 2011. "She had a very tough race last year because she's in a conservative district, but she's so likable and charismatic that she won," he said, referring to her hard-fought contest last November against Republican candidate Jesse Kelly, who Giffords defeated by less than 4,000 votes. "It ought to be possible to disagree in this country without being disagreeable." http://mtc-comm-gcp-core.app.aol.com:8080/read/render?version=1&count=3&channel_id=3&template_id=x0PF&topic_id=19793273&link=/discuss/2011/01/08/nfl-agent-leigh-steinberg-gabrielle-giffords-a-shining-light-of 1 get 1 300 10 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.9) Gecko/20071025 Firefox/2.0.0.9 http://widgets.surphace.com/widgets/sphereit/content?siteid=aolnews2&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aolnews.com%2F2011%2F01%2F08%2Fnfl-agent-leigh-steinberg-gabrielle-giffords-a-shining-light-of%2F&tags=%40aoloriginal%2C%40nofrontpage%2CGabrielle+Giffords%2Cgabrielle+giffords+shooting%2Cleigh+steinberg 1 1 1 1800 0 1 0 0 0 0 get Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.9) Gecko/20071025 Firefox/2.0.0.

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