By A missed field goal during a December Monday Night Football game has taken on an unlikely second life in Lexington, Kentucky—not as a highlight or lowlight, but as the moment one local horseman believes set in motion a life-saving chain of events.
Mark Toothaker, 59, a stallion season manager at Spendthrift Farm, was at home with his wife, Malory, watching the New York Giants face the New England Patriots when kicker Younghoe Koo missed a field goal attempt. The play, likened by some to Charlie Brown’s famously futile kicks, prompted an immediate and overwhelming reaction, wrote People.
“I’ve never felt anything like this in my life. I felt like I got electrocuted,” Toothaker recalled in an interview.
Man credits Giants kicker Younghoe Koo for saving his life after the kicker botched a field goal attempt against the New England Patriots.
Mark Toothaker of Lexington, Kentucky, says he believes Koo saved his life.
Toothaker says the wiff from Koo made him laugh so hard that he… pic.twitter.com/fSlLo1Llg2
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) April 28, 2026
What began as laughter quickly turned serious. The episode triggered a violent seizure, sending Toothaker to the hospital. There, a CT scan revealed a tennis-ball-sized benign tumor on the left side of his brain—one that had already shifted his brain about six millimeters, despite showing no prior symptoms.
Doctors at the University of Kentucky successfully removed the tumor, and Toothaker has since recovered without lasting complications—an outcome he and his family describe with gratitude.
“It was a miracle,” Toothaker said. “He 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.”
The timing, he noted, may have made all the difference. Had the seizure occurred while driving or in another vulnerable setting, the consequences could have been far more severe.
“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,” he said.
Now recovering and back in stride, Toothaker is preparing to attend this weekend’s Kentucky Derby, where he will cheer on Spendthrift Farm’s contender, Further Ado. The story has resonated widely, not only for its unusual origin, but for its uplifting outcome—a reminder of how quickly fortunes can change.
Koo, widely regarded as one of the league’s more reliable kickers, has not publicly commented on the episode. But for Toothaker, the missed attempt has taken on a far different meaning—less a mistake than a moment of unexpected grace.
“God works in mysterious ways,” many have observed in response to the story, a sentiment that aligns with Toothaker’s own view of the events that unfolded.
