Younghoe Koo's whiff kick for the Giants may have saved a life on the way to the Kentucky Derby. When New York Giants kicker Younghoe Koo botched a field goal attempt during a Monday night game this past season, Mark Toothaker laughed so hard he had a seizure and tests revealed he had a benign tumor in his head.
The Incident
It was just an ordinary day last December for Mark Toothaker. He worked at Spendthrift Farm, went to the gym and settled in at home in Lexington, Kentucky, to watch the New York Giants play the New England Patriots on Monday Night Football. He never expected what came next. Watching from bed alongside his wife, Malory, who was reading a book, Giants kicker Younghoe Koo whiffed on a field goal attempt in a real-life scene reminiscent of Charlie Brown and Lucy in the Peanuts cartoon. Rewinding and watching the replay, Toothaker laughed so hard it caused a seizure.
I have never felt anything like this in my life, Toothaker recalled. I felt like I got electrocuted.
Medical Emergency
Malory happens to be a nurse at a rehabilitation hospital working for a brain-injury doctor. After initially thinking her husband was joking, she called 911 and paramedics arrived to get him to a hospital. A CT scan revealed a tennis-ball-sized tumor on the left side of his brain. When you hear the news, You have got a brain tumor, that is what nobody wants to hear, Malory said.
Toothaker was transferred to the University of Kentucky's hospital, where the tumor was surgically removed and turned out to be benign. He was home by the end of the week with no lasting damage. On Saturday, he will be at the Churchill Downs as Spendthrift Farm-owned Further Ado is set to run in the Kentucky Derby.
A Life Saved
He is thankful for that missed kick. The kicker saved my life because it could have happened any other time, Toothaker told The Associated Press in a phone interview. I wholeheartedly believe I was in the right spot at the right time, and he was the trigger for that happening. It was a miracle.
Toothaker, 59, had no symptoms and no idea the tumor had moved his brain 6 millimeters to the right. In the months before his seizure, he had driven and flown all over the country as part of his job as stallion sales manager, including the previous Saturday to Louisville to see Further Ado win the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes.
I could have had it on a plane, anywhere, Toothaker said. I did not kill anybody. I did not run over a family in my Expedition running up and down the road. I guess that would have been the hardest thing for me to live with if somebody would have got hurt out of this. Believe me, as tough as that thing was, as violent as that seizure was, I have no memory of it and I would find it hard to believe that I would not have hurt somebody or hurt myself if I would have been behind a wheel.
Connection to the Game
Toothaker made it a point to watch because he has been friends with then-Giants receiver Wan'Dale Robinson's dad, Dale, for a long time. Robinson went on to become the first player 5-foot-8 or shorter to surpass 1,000 yards receiving since 1989 and got a lucrative contract from the Tennessee Titans. Toothaker said he would love for the 31-year-old Koo, once the most accurate kicker in league history, to be his guest at the Derby, recognizing that the miss is not exactly a career highlight. Koo, who was released two weeks after the game, did not respond to messages from AP for this story.
I know it was not his best moment, but it was beyond crazy, Toothaker said. For she and I to be belly-laughing at his expense, which I feel terrible about now, but it all worked out in the end, that for me it could not have been a better moment.
Reflections
Malory Toothaker said things are very normal for her husband now. So many people are not that fortunate, she said. Really the first indication that he had a problem was the seizure, and to be in your own bed at home, not behind the wheel of a car or traveling, you are just so humbled and feel so blessed and just fortunate that if this had to happen, it was the best-case scenario.
