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RIP John from Riverside/Hemet/VA


SDS

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1 hour ago, SDS said:

Today I got confirmation from John's son that @John from Riverside (formerly from Hemet and VA) passed away in August from an unexpected heart attack. John was a daily mainstay in our lives here for over two decades. 47,292 posts and that's just from when we started counting in 2006 or so. He was getting ready to pack his bags and move to live with son in Oregon when he passed. Mysteriously, he last logged in March 8th. I had tried to connect with him several times per month since his disappearance, as there wasn't any public reason why he hadn't logged in. Unfortunately, we could not make contact with him or his family until the note I received today.

 

John was a fiercely loyal Bills fan, despite never making it to Orchard Park. We had tentative plans to get him out for this year's tailgate, when he started mentioning health issues. We never got a chance to meet.

 

John was an interesting guy. His deep love for the team made for some emotionally charged discussions. He never met a UDFA he didn't love, nor a ref he didn't hate and rage against their bias. His most well known story goes back to very early days of the community. The community troll (we had no moderating tools back then) liked to have fun with John given John's proclivity to emotional outbursts. This culminated in "Hogboy" challenging John to a helmet-spearing contest in a parking lot. John took this seriously and was ready to strap it on! 😂

 

John frequently told us about his interesting life. He was in the air force in Iraq where he often told us about his high-level security clearance and attending intelligence briefs. He was a roadie for the Scorpions. He loved his kids and always had dreams of his son making the NFL and his daughter becoming an actress/singer. We would hear about the constant shuttling of his daughter to auditions where he would name drop with best of them. IIRC, he had plenty of stories about Katy Perry, Madonna, Celine Dion, etc... 

 

He was a great sport in the shoutbox as the guys there enjoyed ribbing on some of the peculiarities. Topics on conversation included his frequent visits to Subway on campus where he was a grad student advisor, his love of Latina women, and a rotting toe that he proclaimed grew back after disregarding his doctor's advice and he just starting running on it. 😂

 

Ultimately, John was a great guy who absolutely loved his kids, loved the Bills, and loved the community here. I regret we didn't make plans to meet a year earlier.

 

We are fortunate he decided to make his home here and he will be missed.

 

Go Bills!

 

 

Great Bills fan and a real gentleman. Sincere condolences to his family and close friends.

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As a daily shoutbox user for many years, I can confidently say that John’s absence was felt after just a couple days. 
 

It didn’t take long for many of us to begin worrying about him. 
 

We joked around about the many things he gave us to joke about .. but we found ourselves doing it less and less as the days, weeks and months passed. 
 

I’m thankful for his son responding to Scott and giving us closure and telling us what we all felt was the truth. 
 

It will be fun to reminisce moving forward, but he will certainly be missed. 
 

RIP, Nine Toes. 

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RIP @John from Riverside. Seemed like a really great guy.

 

i always remembered him sharing

proudly about his kids! 
 

I also remember having to look up where the heck Hemet was years ago due to his screen name! 
 

edit: I also just looked and I love his last post on here was defending Taylor Rapp. That’s a true Bills’ fan (and turns out he was right!). 

Edited by Miyagi-Do Karate
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Very sad to hear this. I enjoyed listening to John's takes and I shared his optimism constantly. He will be greatly missed here. RIP, Sir. GO BILLS!!!

 

Thank you for the great write-up, @SDS.

 

I remember how saddened I was awhile back when we received word that MOVALLEYRANDY had passed, this hits hard as well.

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I think my favorite thing about John may have been what he wasn't.

Big man, retired football player, ex-military, etc. He could have been a real hardass that looked down on people. But he wasn't.

He was always looking out for the little guy or siding with the underdog.

And he would throw down in a heartbeat to protect somebody that maybe couldn't protect themself.

I always loved and respected that about him.

See you on the other side, brother....

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