According to the Kansas City TV station where Adan Manzano worked, a sports reporter passed away on Wednesday while covering Super Bowl 59 in New Orleans but a cause of death isn’t known yet
Adan Manzano, 27, a reporter and anchor for Telemundo Kansas City (KGKC), passed away on Thursday while covering the Super Bowl for Tico Sports and the Spanish-language network.
Who is Adan Manzano as Telemundo NFL reporter passes away in New Orleans, cause of death, bio, age, wife and daughter
Downing stated in his statement that the network was “cooperating with law enforcement as they investigate this tragic event,” although he did not immediately provide a cause of death.
A reporter covering the upcoming SuperBowl has died in New Orleans. Adan Manzano was described as a "rising star" journalist. He covered university and professional sports teams in Kansas City since 2021, conducting interviews in both English and Spanish. pic.twitter.com/zmnh9yrvMO
— Inside Edition (@InsideEdition) February 7, 2025
“As KGKC’s Sports Anchor & Reporter, Adan was a true professional and a rising star, who exemplified excellence in his work,” Downing continued in his statement.
Kansas City’s ABC affiliate, KMBC, reported that Manzano was 27 years old but a cause of death hasn’t been revealed yet.
Adan Manzano, who was a sports reporter for a local Telemundo affiliate in Kansas, died while in New Orleans to cover the 2025 Super Bowl. Adan Manzano 27, passed away yesterday in New Orleans, while on assignment to cover the Super Bowl for both Telemundo Kansas City and Tico Sports.
According to his LinkedIn page, Adan Manzano had been employed at KGKC since April 2021. A 2024 KSNT piece states that the Mexico City native Adan Manzano graduated from Kansas State after relocating to Topeka, Kansas, in 2018.
Sporting Kansas City mourns the passing of Adan Manzano. Adan covered Sporting KC and all sports in Kansas City with class and passion for the past five years. Our thoughts are with his family, friends and colleagues at Telemundo KC at this tragic time. pic.twitter.com/QojuTOw3DW
— Sporting KC Communications (@SportingKC_PR) February 6, 2025
Before Super Bowl 2024, when he was a sideline reporter, Manzano told the publication, “I used to dream about this but I never expected that it was going to come that soon.”
In his last X post, Manzano wrote, “Mahomes vs. el Mundo” (literally, “Mahomes vs. the world”) as the caption for a photo of Mahomes with a sizable group of reporters seated around his table on Super Bowl opening night.
In addition, he shared a photo of a Super Bowl 2025 sign on Sunday and thanked the Chiefs for allowing him to cover the game for the third time.
According to KSNT, Manzano’s wife, Ashleigh Boyd, was killed in an automobile accident months after the previous year’s Super Bowl when a driver crossed the centre line and collided with their vehicle.
The one-year-old daughter of the couple, Eleanor, who was in the car with her mom survived the accident in Kansas. The accident happened in April 2024 at the 7800 Block of SW 53rd Street during the morning hours with a male driver also present inside the vehicle.
Before Super Bowl 2024, Adan’s wife Boyd, a second grade teacher at Topeka’s Lowman Hill Elementary School, told KSNT that Manzano had “worked so hard at this.”
“There’s been times when he’s had two or three jobs to make ends meet,” Boyd said at the time.