He laughed so hard at Koo's botched NFL kick that he had a seizure. It may have saved his life

It was just an ordinary day last December for Mark Toothaker. He worked at Spendthrift Farm, went to the gym and settled in at home in Lexington, Kentucky, to watch the New York Giants play the New England Patriots on “Monday Night Football.”

He never expected what came next.

Watching from bed alongside his wife, Malory, who was reading a book, Giants kicker Younghoe Koo whiffed on a field goal attempt in a real-life scene reminiscent of Charlie Brown and Lucy in the “Peanuts” cartoon. Rewinding and watching the replay, Toothaker laughed so hard it caused a seizure.

“I’ve never felt anything like this in my life," Toothaker recalled. “I felt like I got electrocuted.”

Malory happens to be a nurse at a rehabilitation hospital working for a brain-injury doctor. After initially thinking her husband was joking, she called 911 and paramedics arrived to get him to a hospital.

A CT scan revealed a tennis-ball-sized tumor on the left side of his brain. "When you hear the news, ‘You’ve got a brain tumor,' that’s what nobody wants to hear,” Malory said.

Toothaker was transferred to the University of Kentucky's hospital, where the tumor was surgically removed and turned out to be benign. He was home by the end of the week with no lasting damage. On Saturday, he will be at the Churchill Downs as Spendthrift Farm-owned Further Ado is set to run in the Kentucky Derby.

He is thankful for that missed kick.

“(The) kicker saved my life because it could’ve happened any other time," Toothaker told The Associated Press in a phone interview. “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, 59, had no symptoms and no idea the tumor had moved his brain 6 millimeters to the right. In the months before his seizure, he had driven and flown all over the country as part of his job as stallion season manager, including the previous Saturday to Louisville to see Further Ado win the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes.

“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.”

Toothaker made it a point to watch because he has been friends with then-Giants receiver Wan'Dale Robinson's dad, Dale, for a long time. Robinson went on to become the first player 5-foot-8 or shorter to surpass 1,000 yards receiving since 1989 and got a lucrative contract from the Tennessee Titans.

Toothaker said he would love for the 31-year-old Koo — once the most accurate kicker in league history — to be his guest at the Derby, recognizing that the miss is not exactly a career highlight. Koo, who was released two weeks after the game, did not respond to messages from AP for this story.

“I know it wasn’t his best moment, but it was beyond crazy," Toothaker said. “For she 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 a better moment.”

Malory Toothaker said things are very normal for her husband now.

"So many people aren’t that fortunate,” she said. “Really the first indication that he had a problem was the seizure — and to be in your own bed at home, not behind the wheel of a car or traveling, you’re just so humbled and feel so blessed and just fortunate that if this had to happen, it was the best-case scenario.”

AP horse racing: https://apnews.com/hub/horse-racing

New York Giants kicker Younghoe Koo (37) kicks during the first half of an NFL football game against the New England Patriots, Monday, Dec. 1, 2025, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — Nedra Talley Ross, the last surviving member of the 1960s bee-hived pop band the Ronettes, who sang the enduring hits “Be My Baby,” “Baby I Love You” and “Walking in the Rain” alongside her cousins, has died. She was 80.

Ross died at home Sunday, according to the singer's daughter, Nedra K. Ross, and the Ronettes' official Instagram account. “Nedra’s voice, style and spirit helped define a sound that would change music. Her contribution to the group’s story and their defining influence will live forever,” a statement read.

The Ronettes’ sexy look and powerful voices — plus songwriting and producing help from Phil Spector — turned them into one of the premier acts of the girl-group era, touring England with The Rolling Stones and befriending the Beatles.

“Show business is a thing that can be great, but it can be bad, too,” Ross said during her acceptance speech to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2007. “For us, we had a family that gave us a core to help stabilize us in a very difficult crazy world. It was a fun time. I thank God truly for it.”

Ross, born and raised in New York City, together with sisters Veronica “Ronnie” and Estelle Bennett, released their debut album in 1964, “Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes, Featuring Veronica.” Five of its 12 tracks had made it to the U.S. Billboard charts, and it was listed in Rolling Stone’s 500 greatest albums of all time. It was the only studio album for the trio.

They also did a memorable version of “Sleigh Ride” that appeared on Spector’s “A Christmas Gift for You” album and was recently highlighted in the “Roofman” soundtrack and on “The Bear.” But their string of hits had tailed off by the time they split around 1967.

In March 1963, Estelle Bennett managed to arrange an audition in front of Phil Spector, known for his big, brass-and-drum style dubbed the “wall of sound.” They were signed to Philles Records in 1963. After being signed, they sang backup for other acts until Spector had the group record “Be My Baby” and “Baby I Love You.”

Martin Scorsese used “Be My Baby” to open his 1973 film “Mean Streets,” and the song appears in the title sequence of “Dirty Dancing” and the closing credits of “Baby Mama.” It also appeared on TV in everything from “Moonlighting” and “The Wonder Years” to “How I Met Your Mother” and “Money Heist.”

When the Ronettes were inducted in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones remembered opening for the trio in England in the mid-1960s. “They could sing all their way right through a wall of sound,” Richards said. “They didn’t need anything. They touched my heart right there and then and they touch it still.”

After the Ronettes disbanded, Ross turned to Christian music, including the album “Full Circle” in 1978. Ross was married to DJ and television personality Scott Ross from 1967 until his death in 2023.

For nearly 15 years, the women waged a lengthy, and ultimately unsuccessful, court battle with Spector over royalties. A judge ordered Spector to pay $2.6 million in past royalties and interest, but New York State’s highest court threw out that ruling on appeal in 2002.

Ronnie Spector died at 78 in 2022. Bennett died at 67 in 2009. Ross is survived by four children.

FILE - Nedra Talley Ross appears in the press room after the induction of The Ronettes into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in New York on March 12, 2007. (AP Photo/Stuart Ramson, File)