‘Unreal’: Lions win 1 year after mega fan’s death

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — The Lions’ win over the Buccaneers was an extra special moment for a West Michigan family.

John Rich, a super Lions fan died after a battle with a rare form of cancer on Jan. 21, 2023. Yesterday marked a year since his passing and happened to be the day the Lions won their second playoff game, getting them one step closer to the Super Bowl.

“The Lions were what he loved the most so it’s unreal that they won yesterday on the day of his one year passing,” said Carla Rich, the wife of John Rich.

With a Barry Sanders bobblehead next to his urn, Carla Rich told News 8 about her late husband John and his serious love for the Detroit Lions.

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“We met back in 2002 while we were both in the Navy,” Carla Rich reminisced.

The couple got married in Los Angeles before moving to John’s hometown in Grandville, Michigan, where the family built a life and had their first son, Landon.

“That was the happiest moment of his life other than when he watched the Lions,” Carla Rich laughed.

She remembered how Lions’ seasons were major to John.

“Every Lions’ season we had to make a big deal of, a lot of time we either went to Detroit, at one point we were season ticket holders,” Carla Rich said.

She holds tight to the good memories of Lions games with her husband and son.

“I remember him holding our son, probably 6 or 7 months old and trying not to scream at the TV, but trying to rock him to bed. And that was him, anything that he could get his hands on that was all Lions, he was all about it,” Rich said.

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Carla Rich said she and her son Landon will carry on the tradition John gave to his family.

“He taught our son how to chant, “no, Pack, no,” and he still does that to this day. And then he will scream like, “Go Lions!” so he instilled that in him and he continues to do it. So then yesterday when they won, we were chanting and crying. Well, I was crying, but we were chanting and so excited and we kept saying, daddy’s team won!”

Last year is when News 8 first heard that John Rich was a “diehard Lions fan,” according to Carla Rich at the time. He had been diagnosed at the VA Clinic in Wyoming with glioblastoma — brain cancer. When Carla Rich eventually called to arrange hospice care for her husband, they were told there were no more hospice beds at the facility Veterns Affairs contracts with.

A day later, Waterford Place retirement community in Jenison offered John Rich a place to stay at no cost to his family. He died nearly a week later.

A Lions’ victory one year after one of their biggest fans dies means a lot, Carla Rich said.

“It gives us a lot of consolation I think too, because it makes it even more special to know that something he was so passionate about has gone so big for the city of Detroit and the state of Michigan and for him who is a huge fan, it’s just unreal,” Carla Rich said.

She, like many other Lions fans, are hoping for a Super Bowl win.

“I know that San Francisco is tough, but I feel like this season is special. We’ll be watching nervously, but we’ll be watching. We’ll be rooting for them to go all the way. That’s just going to be something I can say, ‘After Dad passed the Lions went all the way.’ So, I’m going to make sure I hold on to that as much as I can,” said Carla Rich.

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