How A New York Giants Kicker's Missed Field Goal Saved A Man's Life
- Dominic Konareski
- 2 hours ago
- 2 min read
The New York Giants stressed out many fans last season. A defense that couldn’t play all four quarters and a special teams unit that looked sometimes out of a comedy movie was the ultimate downfall in an overall great offensive year for Big Blue.
One moment for New York last season is still a play stuck in many Giant fan’s heads and overall football fans alike. That moment is when New York Giants kicker Younghoe Koo missed a field goal.
He is a kicker. His lone job is to kick a football – and well he didn’t even come close to that.
For many, it was a hysterical moment of laughter and hitting replay on the tv remote when Koo planted his foot too soon and too low. The result? His cleat getting stuck in the grass, leading to a massive loss of yards from the botched field goal. Koo’s toes came about six inches short from even connecting with the football.
For one fan watching on TV, it was also a very funny moment for him, but that funny moment would nearly turn into a tragedy.
Mark Toothaker was watching the game on his TV when Koo missed the ball. Toothaker laughed so hard that it unfortunately triggered a seizure. The 59-year-old Kentucky native would be rushed to the hospital where it was then discovered by doctors that he had a tennis-ball-sized tumor on the left side of his brain. The tumor was successfully removed and later deemed as non-cancerous.
Toothaker credits Younghoe Koo for saving his life.
“(The) kicker saved my life because it could’ve happened any other time. 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 had no symptoms and no idea that the tumor was even there. The tumor’s placement even moved his brain 6 millimeters to the right before it was removed. Younghoe Koo may not have been able to save the Giants in the game, but he produced a direct result that would end up saving a life.
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