December 1, 2025, was an ordinary day. Mark Toothaker had gone to the gym earlier in the day, and later was excited to watch New England Patriots versus the New York Giants. It was ‘Monday Night Football’ and as he settled into bed to watch the game, his wife, Mallory, was busy reading. There was nothing extraordinary about the day until the Giants’ kicker Younghoe Koo kicked the ground instead of the ball during his field goal attempt.

The whole incident was so comical that Toothaker rewinded the play to watch it again. He broke into a fit of laughter, and he chuckled so hard that it caused him a seizure!

“I’ve never felt anything like this in my life,” Toothaker told Associated Press over the phone. “I felt like I got electrocuted.”

Malory, who works as a nurse in a rehab hospital under a brain-injury specialist, didn’t realize the seriousness right away. At first, she thought her husband was kidding. But once it sank in, she dialed 911, and paramedics soon arrived to rush him to the hospital. A CT scan ultimately showed a mass about the size of a tennis ball on the left side of his brain.

Toothaker was moved to the University of Kentucky’s hospital, where surgeons removed the tumor, later confirming it was benign. Within days, he was back home and recovering. The latest update on him is that he will be in the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on Saturday. But as of now, he is simply happy that Koo missed the kick.

“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.”

At 59, Toothaker had no warning signs. He had no symptoms at all and no clue that a tumor had already shifted his brain about 6 millimeters to the right. In the months leading up to the seizure, he had been constantly on the move for his job as a stallion season manager, traveling by car and plane across the country. Just days earlier, he had even made the trip to Louisville to watch Further Ado capture the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes.

“I could have had it on a plane, anywhere,” Toothaker said, explaining how things could have been bad. “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.”

Toothaker said he’d gladly invite the 31-year-old Younghoe Koo to join him at the Derby, acknowledging that the miss isn’t exactly something anyone wants remembered. However, the player was released just two weeks after that game.

Toothaker also has a close NFL connection through his longtime friendship with Dale Robinson, father of Giants receiver Wan’Dale Robinson.

While the incident proved to be a lifesaver for Toothaker, it went on to become one of the most embarrassing plays for Koo and the Giants.

Younghoe Koo’s missed field goal got him cut from the Giants

While he attempted to kick the ball, he swung at the air and missed it, failing to move the ball in the slightest bit. As a result, due to the incomplete kick, Jamie Gillan, who was responsible for holding the ball, was left unguarded and was tackled by the Patriots’ field goal defense. The play was ruled a sack, not a miss.

This happened late in the second quarter after a missed touchdown, with the Giants trailing 17–7 and badly needing points. Fans quickly reacted online and called it one of the most embarrassing plays in NFL history.

“The downfall of Younghoe Koo has been depressing to witness… This is easily one of the most, if not the most, embarrassing plays in NFL history,” sports content creator Jon Root said.

Koo later explained that the ball may have slipped in the cold weather and said he pulled up to avoid getting injured.

This is not the first time that Koo’s failed field goal attempt became viral. Younghoe Koo’s 47-yard field goal attempt went viral in the past for all the wrong reasons. Regardless, he was selected for the Pro Bowl and was the best performer in field goals with 37 field goals made during the 2020 season.

He played one last game for the Giants before being waived from the team.

Koo was let go by the Giants on December 16, 2025, following their loss to the Washington Commanders, with the final score being 29-21 in Week 15. In the game, he missed two 54-yard field goal attempts at crucial moments, once when the team was trailing 3-0 and the other time when the score was 22-14.

During his short stint with the team, he went 4-of-6 on field goals and 11-of-12 on extra points over five games. Overall, his time with the Giants ended on a rough note, with inconsistent kicking and high-pressure misses leading to his release.