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.
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.
Toothaker was transferred to the University of Kentucky's hospital, where the tumor was surgically removed and turned out to be benign.
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.
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.”
Koo, who was released two weeks after the game, did not respond to messages from AP for this story.