Giant hero with boot at Lambeau 9 years ago, Tynes reflects after staph infection ended career
It’s just wrong what’s happened to the right foot of Lawrence Tynes. The right foot that twice sent the Giants into the Super Bowl with overtime kicks in NFC Championship Games, and now, well, it’s not only too painful for him to kick a football after the nerve damage from a career-ending staph infection, but he’s given up on running, dress shoes are not manageable and walking can be difficult if he’s having a bad day, especially on cold days. Tynes’ 47-yard field goal into the Green Bay night seemed like it took forever to work its way through the minus-23 degree wind chill in the January 2008 title game, and then four years later he found a workable piece of grass amid the Candlestick Park slop to drill a 31-yard field goal to beat the 49ers. He is the only kicker in NFL history with two game-winning overtime playoff field goals. Each time, the Giants went on to beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl. Suggestion to the Giants: When vetting candidates for the Class of 2017 Ring of Honor, there is no one more deserving than Tynes, who kicked two of the biggest field goals in the 92 years of the franchise.
He created an incredible biggame legacy. The game-winner in Green Bay, which is where the Giants return for Sunday’s wild-card round in what’s forecast to be frigid conditions again, is one of the legendary kicks of all time.
“I’m proud of it,” he told the Daily News from his home in Overland Park, Kan. “It’s a cool moment, not just in Giants history, but NFL history. I’m very proud of the fact that I was on that team.”
Tynes is just 38 years old and should still be kicking in the NFL. Instead, he’s transitioned into life after football as senior vice president of Wheels Up, a private aviation company based in New York. Tynes handles the Midwest and his clients include NFL, MLB, PGA and LPGA players.
He’s happy in his new job but wishes he was still in his old one. Tynes completed a five-year contract with the Giants in 2012. They wanted him back and offered him a multi-year deal. He decided he wanted to test free agency, and with two conference championship-winning kicks on his resume, he figured he was at the height of his market value and would be in demand.
Leaving the Giants turned out to be the biggest mistake of his career professionally and personally. The market never developed for Tynes and he signed a one-year $905,000 deal with the Bucs before training camp when their kicker Connor Barth was injured.
“Hindsight is 20-20,” he said. “It was the worst year for specialists in NFL history for free agency. No one really got any long-term deal. I picked the worst year of all time to go into free agency.”
Tynes is now suing the Bucs for $20 million — career earnings he calculated he lost — alleging he contracted Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) infection from the Bucs facility, which ended his career. Tynes had seen a podiatrist in Tampa to perform a toenail procedure on the big toe on his right foot on July 30, 2013. He had the procedure done every year of his career with no residual problems. He had never had MRSA.
According to the lawsuit, the rehab procedure required Tynes “to use hot tubs, cold tubs, and a soak bucket for his toe, and included dressing changes to the open wound in his toe” and the team encouraged him to do the work at their facility. The lawsuit claims that Tynes was not informed about separate incidents of infection among others using the facility and that other players, coaches and a trainer battling infections used the same therapy devices as Tynes.
Tynes’ rehab was not going well. Pain prevented him from practicing. The toe “turned red and swollen with puss oozing out, and Mr. Tynes began to feel feverish with chills,” according to the suit. He had the toe cultured on Aug. 9 and it tested positive for MRSA.
He blamed the conditions at the Bucs facility. Two other Bucs players, guard Carl Nicks and cornerback Johnathan Banks, were also diagnosed with MRSA in 2013. Tynes subsequently underwent three surgeries and six weeks of intravenous antibiotic therapy through a PICC line.
Tynes told the Daily News the surgeries were to “basically save my toe.”
Teams were calling wanting to work him out, but he couldn’t do it. The pain was unbearable when his foot struck the ball. He last