{"id":65372,"date":"2019-05-14T15:15:34","date_gmt":"2019-05-14T19:15:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonnfl.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=65372"},"modified":"2019-05-14T15:15:34","modified_gmt":"2019-05-14T19:15:34","slug":"buffalo-bills-superfan-pancho-billa-passes-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2019\/05\/14\/buffalo-bills-superfan-pancho-billa-passes-away\/","title":{"rendered":"Buffalo Bills Superfan Pancho Billa Passes Away"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Ezra Castro<\/strong>, one of the <a href=\"http:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/bills\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Buffalo Bills<\/a>&#8216; most well-known fans who created a unique persona known as &#8220;Pancho Billa,&#8221; passed away on Tuesday after a determined battle with cancer.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Our hearts broken as we have lost our dear brother ezra &quot;Pancho Billa&quot; this morning. We are thankful and forever grateful for all the love and support during this journey. Ezra was surrounded by family and loved ones. At this time we ask for privacy as we mourn our loss.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Pancho Billa (@PanchoBilla1) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PanchoBilla1\/status\/1128322954654363649?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 14, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Ezra Castro, a.k.a. Pancho Billa, Passes Away After Battle With Cancer<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Castro, 39, had entered hospice care in late April but was personally involved in the selection of Buffalo&#8217;s first-round pick, <a href=\"https:\/\/lwosonnfl.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/2019\/03\/01\/ed-oliver-2019-nfl-draft-profile\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Ed Oliver<\/strong><\/a>. The Bills front office staff, including general manager <strong>Brandon Beane<\/strong>, called him in his hospital room and made sure he had a part to play in the selection.<\/p>\n<p>How he became a Bills fan as a Dallas, TX resident who was born in El Paso is an incredibly unique story. As a boy, he looked for a team with similar colors to Mexico&#8217;s flag as a celebration of his Mexican-American heritage. Ultimately, it came down to the Bills or the <a href=\"http:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/patriots\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New England Patriots<\/a> and he eventually chose the former. His father and brother, both named Jaime, are <a href=\"http:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/cowboys\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dallas Cowboys<\/a> fans.<\/p>\n<p>Eventually, he put together a character that he named Pancho Billa. It was in reference to famed Mexican revolutionary Francisco &#8220;Pancho&#8221; Villa who made a name for himself in the early 20th century. His costume included a lucha libre mask and a serape, all in the Bills&#8217; red, white, and blue colors along with the team&#8217;s buffalo logo.<\/p>\n<p>Castro&#8217;s cancer diagnosis came in November 2017. It was around that time that he began feeling numbness in his left arm. He initially thought it was a pinched nerve. But, upon going to the doctor, he received what he termed the <a href=\"https:\/\/buffalonews.com\/2019\/05\/14\/pancho-billa-ezra-castro-bills-superfan-dies-after-cancer-battle\/?utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=puma&amp;utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1557848616\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">&#8220;worst news of my life.&#8221;<\/a> A cancerous growth had wrapped around his spine and also spread to his liver, lungs, and lymph nodes.<\/p>\n<p>A month later, Castro underwent surgery to remove the tumor and underwent chemotherapy afterward. At the same time, a GoFundMe page with a goal of raising $30,000 which was easily met. The following April, with the NFL Draft in his hometown of Dallas, he joined <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/R\/ReedAn00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Andre Reed<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/J\/JackFr02.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fred Jackson<\/a><\/strong> to announce the Bills&#8217; third-round pick, defensive tackle <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/P\/PhilHa00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Harrison Phillips<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Pancho was a pillar of positive strength and energy for me and all of <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/BillsMafia?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#BillsMafia<\/a>. He\u2019s been a tremendous inspiration for our team. I was fortunate enough to spend time with him and get to know his story. My heart goes out to his children, friends and family. Viva Los Bills! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/UFBVMjMWDd\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/UFBVMjMWDd<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Kim Pegula (@KimPegula) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KimPegula\/status\/1128325709687083008?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 14, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Castro is survived by his partner Veronica Borjon, their two children Ginobili and Lourdes, as well as his mother Aurora Martinez, father Jaime Castro, and three brothers Eli, Jaime, and Zenoc.<\/p>\n<p><em>Photo credit: Fan Man Weekly<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Prominent Buffalo Bills fan Ezra Castro, known for his persona Pancho Billa, passed away on Tuesday after a courageous battle with cancer. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":742,"featured_media":65380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,36],"tags":[177,61,40,1173,5238],"class_list":["post-65372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bills","category-nfl-news","tag-buffalo-bills","tag-football","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-draft","tag-pancho-billa"],"modified_by":"John Bava","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/742"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}