How a Missed NFL Field Goal Saved a Man’s Life by Revealing a Brain Tumor

In an extraordinary twist of fate, a botched field goal attempt by New York Giants kicker Younghoe Koo last December may have inadvertently saved a man’s life. The incident, which unfolded during a Monday Night Football game against the New England Patriots, triggered a seizure in Mark Toothaker, a 59-year-old thoroughbred farm manager from Lexington, Kentucky. The seizure led to the discovery of a tennis-ball-sized brain tumor that doctors later removed, sparing Toothaker from potentially fatal consequences.

The Moment That Changed Everything

The play in question occurred in the second quarter of the Giants’ Week 14 matchup against the Patriots. Koo, then the Giants’ kicker, lined up for a routine field goal attempt—only to abort the kick at the last second in a comical, almost slapstick fashion. The ball wobbled off his foot, barely moving, and the play devolved into a chaotic scramble as Patriots players swarmed the ball. The bizarre sequence, reminiscent of a Peanuts cartoon, left viewers across the country in stitches.

For Toothaker, watching from his bed alongside his wife, Malory, the moment was no laughing matter—at least not for long. As he rewound the play and laughed uncontrollably, the amusement quickly turned to horror. “I’ve never felt anything like this in my life,” Toothaker recalled. “I felt like I got electrocuted.” His laughter triggered a violent seizure, the first indication of a serious underlying medical issue.

Malory Toothaker, a nurse at a rehabilitation hospital, initially thought her husband was joking. But when she realized the severity of the situation, she immediately called 911. Paramedics rushed Toothaker to the hospital, where a CT scan revealed the shocking truth: a tumor the size of a tennis ball had shifted his brain 6 millimeters to the right. “When you hear the news, ‘You’ve got a brain tumor,’ that’s what nobody wants to hear,” Malory said.

A Tumor Discovered Just in Time

Toothaker, who works as a stallion season manager at Spendthrift Farm, had no prior symptoms. In the months leading up to the seizure, he had traveled extensively for work, including a trip to Louisville the previous weekend to watch the farm’s horse, Further Ado, win the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes. The tumor’s discovery was nothing short of a miracle, as Toothaker could have suffered the seizure anywhere—behind the wheel of his car, on a plane, or in a crowded public space.

“I could have had it on a plane, anywhere. I didn’t kill anybody. I didn’t run over a family in my Expedition running up and down the road. I guess that would’ve been the hardest thing for me to live with if somebody would’ve got hurt out of this.”

Mark Toothaker

Toothaker was transferred to the University of Kentucky’s hospital, where surgeons successfully removed the benign tumor. He was discharged by the end of the week, with no lasting damage. The seizure, as terrifying as it was, had occurred in the safest possible setting—his own home