One of the worst moments in Younghoe Koo’s NFL career last season may have saved a man’s life.
At least that’s how it seems if you hear Mark Toothaker describe what happened to him when he was home with his wife last December watching Monday Night Football as the New York Giants played the New England Patriots.
In the second quarter of the game, Koo, kicking for the Giants, suffered a terrible, funny, awful, embarrassing moment when he abruptly decided not to follow through on a field goal attempt and the play turned into a Keystone Cops moment on national television.
Perhaps like many fans who witnessed the play, Toothaker began laughing at Koo’s expense. But suddenly, unexpectedly, the laughter turned into a crisis when it brought on a violent seizure.
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And that led to things, which led to things, which Toothaker believes saved his life.
“(The) kicker saved my life because it could’ve happened any other time,” Toothaker told The Associated Press. “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 sees a miracle in Koo’s aborted kick and his medical emergency , which he likens to getting “electrocuted” because his wife immediately called 911. When paramedics arrived, they whisked him to the hospital.
New York Giants place kicker Younghoe Koo is on the field before the game against the Green Bay Packers at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., on Nov. 16, 2025. (Vincent Carchietta/Imagn Images)
A CT scan revealed a tennis-ball-sized tumor on the left side of Toothaker’s brain. So, yes, serious stuff manifesting after laughter
“When you hear the news, ‘You’ve got a brain tumor,’ that’s what nobody wants to hear,” said Malory Toothaker, who happens to be a nurse who works with brain-injury patients.
Toothaker was transferred to the University of Kentucky’s hospital, where the tumor was surgically removed. It turned out to be benign, according to The Associated Press.
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Toothaker was home by the end of the week with no lasting damage and and he continues working at Spendthrift Farm whose thoroughbred Further Ado will race in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby.
New York Giants place kicker Younghoe Koo makes an extra point during the second quarter against the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium on Dec. 1, 2025. (Eric Canha/Imagn Images)
Toothaker, 59, said he had no symptoms and no idea the tumor had pushed his brain six millimeters to the right as it grew. All Toothaker knows for sure is that his job as stallion season manager requires he drive and fly all around the country.
And if that seizure had hit when he was in the air or behind the wheel, a cool story might have a different ending.
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“I could have had it on a plane, anywhere,” Toothaker said. “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.
“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 wouldn’t have hurt somebody or hurt myself if I would’ve been behind a wheel.”
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Younghoe Koo of the New York Giants lines up a kick during the second quarter against the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., on Dec. 1, 2025. (Kathryn Riley/Getty Images)
Toothaker’s good fortune was part of Koo’s undoing.
He was released by the Giants after a Week 15 loss to the Washington Commanders when he missed two field goals. The memory of the botched attempt against the Patriots definitely didn’t help his cause, either, as the team decided his fate.
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attempted to contact Koo for this story but he did not return a message.
“I know it wasn’t his best moment, but it was beyond crazy,” Toothaker said. “For [Malory] 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 couldn’t have been at a better moment.”
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