Extra Points: Tylee Forever

By Lee Pace

The flesh and bones of Tylee Hezekiah Craft have departed Chapel Hill and the University of North Carolina football program at the tender age of 23 years and 11 days. But his spirit lives on. Forever they'll see that visor turned upside down and worn backwards … they'll remember him smiling and cracking wise … they'll embrace his ardent love for the sport of football and his teammates, without question a reservoir of fuel spurring him to live 30 months after a cancer diagnosis that could have clipped his life in mere weeks.

His spirit is there in the early morning hours before football practice, when fellow receiver and best friend J.J. Jones kneels down and touches the 13-yard line, bows his head and says a little prayer.

"He's the first thing on my mind," Jones says. "I tell him good morning and tell him to watch over me in practice. I feel like he's still part of the team, he's still with us."

The love and respect he engendered is embodied on the left middle finger of Amber Rinestine-Ressa, the director of the football team's nutrition program who developed a deep bond with Craft during his illness. Five days after Craft's death on Oct. 12, she visited a local tattoo parlor and came away with a cancer ribbon inked onto the inside of her finger.

"It's a way to remember him forever," says Rinestine-Ressa. "Tylee was so sassy and had so much attitude. Along with courage and confidence and perseverance, he had personality. He was so much fun to be around even if he wasn't feeling good."

They'll celebrate him at the Purple Bowl, a West Franklin Street eatery where Craft loved the Blue Majik smoothies, a concoction of banana, coconut oil, dates, pineapple vanilla extract and almond milk.

"Tylee's unwavering perseverance and positive spirit lights up the lives of everyone around him. He has made an incredible impact on our community at Purple Bowl," read a post on the business's Facebook page announcing that all proceeds from that drink during his birthday month of October would go to help defray his enormous medical expenses.

Tylee's spirit lives on at the SECU Family House on Finley Golf Course Road, where recently he and his mother September Craft donated an autographed and framed No. 13 jersey to hang in the lobby of the building that housed September on her countless trips from Sumter, S.C. for Tylee's doctor appointments and cancer treatments.

"If I was ever in a bad mood, that would go away seeing Tylee come through that door because he always had a smile on his face," says Claudette Whitted, operations manager at SECU Family House. "I never saw him frown, not once, even when he had some bad days."

He's being mourned and remembered across the nation and beyond. From Foxborough, Mass., former Tar Heel QB Drake Maye posted on his Instagram account Sunday before starting his first NFL game with the New England Patriots, "Love you man, R.I.P. This is just a reminder there are bigger things than football." Sportscaster Michele Tafoya tweeted "RIP." Replies to the social media posts from Carolina football announcing Craft's death came in French and Spanish. Former Tar Heel basketball coach Matt Doherty offered that Craft's "courage, resilience and positivity inspired many." College football writer Matt Fortuna noted that Craft was "just an incredible beacon of courage throughout his multi-year battle with cancer." One Clemson fan posted a candle and the words, "Rest in Peace," and a Miami fan wrote, "The U sends so much love and deepest condolences to the Heels. Fly with angels, Tylee."

Already signage has been posted outside the Tar Heel locker room in Kenan Football Center designating the Tylee Craft Nutrition Center, the hub where players pick up snacks, drinks, nutrition supplements and assorted fare. Fabricators are working to produce signs that will be posted by the door leading to the tunnel with the inscription Tylee Strong and Keep Swinging that players can touch on their way to the field. One receiver will follow Jones' initiative of wearing Craft's jersey against Georgia Tech in each game the rest of the year (Kobe Paysour will be No. 13 next Saturday at Virginia). The T-shirts players wear underneath their shoulder pads will have his number 13, and each helmet has a round sticker with 13 and #TyleeStrong.

And his legacy will endure forever on YouTube, where the two-minute video shown in Kenan Stadium Saturday between the first and second quarters of the Tar Heels' game against Georgia Tech is posted. Matt Fedder of the football program's video staff pieced the visuals, music and audio snippets from Coach Mack Brown into a moving montage.

"Tylee never showed any weakness," Fedder says. "It was important to capture his courage and personality in a couple of minutes. I was very fortunate to know him before the cancer diagnosis and then after. For me, watching him has been a transformative experience and a guideline to how to live the rest of your life. He refused to be a victim, and he would absolutely hate the thought of his teammates and everyone in the program sitting around and sulking."

***

Tylee Craft was a junior at Sumter High School in the South Carolina Low Country when he caught the attention of Tar Heel receivers coach Lonnie Galloway in the spring of 2019. Galloway was suitably impressed with a film clip of the long and lanky Craft running a deep pass route, leaping toward the ball, extending his left arm at the apex of his jump, pulling the ball into his body with one hand, then cradling it as he rolled to the ground. Craft ran a 4.4 forty-yard dash, was a standout in the triple jump and long jump, compiled a 4.0 GPA and was an Honor Roll student. His coach had a proven track record of producing quality college players. What was not to like?

Craft and his mother visited Chapel Hill in the spring of 2019 and were smitten with the family atmosphere around the program. Tylee had one question for Galloway and Brown when they visited Sumter. "Can I keep my number 13?" he asked. Brown made a quick phone call back to Chapel Hill, learned the number was available and Craft donned it as a true freshman for the fall of 2020. Given the Tar Heels' deep roster at receiver at the time and Craft's need to put on some bulk, his playing time in 2020 and '21 was limited to 11 games, mostly spot duty on special teams. He was focused on spring ball in 2022 and the opportunity to carve his niche.

"He could have been amazing," Jones says. "That spring, we were supposed to compete for the starting spot on the outside. He easily could have won the battle. He was legit, it was his time to be a key player for us. He could have been 'the guy' for us."

Team chaplain Mitch Mason pegged the nickname "Cadillac" for Craft because he hummed along with beauty and precision. "At 6-5, he had these long legs and could build up his speed," Mason says. "Once he got going, he was hard to stop. He had the ability to high-point the football, to time his jump perfectly."

As strength and conditioning workouts ensued in the winter of 2022 leading toward the late-February commencement of spring practice, Craft was burdened with periodic spasms of pain in his back. The medical staff commenced a battery of tests as Craft was limited in what he could do on the field. That led to the fateful episode on March 14 when he doubled over in pain in an elevator in Kenan Football Center. He was rushed to the emergency room next door at UNC Hospitals, and, five days later, came the diagnosis: Metastatic stage four cancer in the lungs, liver and spine.

"From the very beginning, Tylee was dedicated and determined to beat this," says his mother, a law enforcement officer in Sumter. "We had radiation, chemo, and experimental procedures. For two and a half years, we prayed for good news, that it had gone into remission. We just never got that. It was a rare disease. He didn't smoke, vape, drink, take drugs. He was a healthy kid."

Craft developed a particular kinship with Mason, who himself has been mired in a grave battle since early 2020 against a rare neurological disease known as Idiopathic Small Fiber Neuropathy. Mason one day was watching a baseball game on TV. As he watched the player standing in the batter's box, he thought of Craft. "Keep swinging," he thought. Keep swinging became a battle cry for them both.

"Tylee wrote the book on perseverance," Mason says. "I'm learning from him. To see him face this giant head on was more than inspiring. It was life changing. He's a fighter, he embodies what it means to be Tar Heel tough."

Tylee doggedly endured through periods where it seemed like the radiation and chemo were staving off the cancer and others where he felt weak and riddled with pain. He found the strength to remain a student and earned his degree in exercise and sports science/sports administration in May 2024 and began working toward a graduate degree. He attended every football practice and meeting and was on the sideline for every game over the 2022 and '23 seasons. He developed a close network that included Brown and Galloway and their wives Sally and Winslow; Kat Zambrana of the academic support staff; and Rinestine-Ressa and her assistant Issy Chung. His favorite spot to "hang" was the nutrition center which is located on the ground floor of Kenan Football Center at the apex of the locker room, training room, weight room and equipment room.

"He hid his pain so well and he never wanted to be a burden," says Chung. "It's like he had 10 moms, making sure he got to class, making sure he ate, telling him to get out of the sun if it was too hot."

"The only reason he beat the odds was that he loved football so much, loved everything about it, and he loved this team," adds Rinestine-Ressa.

In time, Craft's cancer spread to his brain and launched a series of dominoes that affected his ability to breath and eat. His deterioration was quick as the 2024 season evolved. He made the trip with the team to Minnesota for the season opener. One week he was walking with a cane. For another game, he moved around on a motorized scooter. By the time Pittsburgh came to Chapel Hill in early October, he missed the game entirely.

"It was anguishing having to watch him slide the last few weeks," Brown says. "He was crumbling. We gave him a birthday party on October 1, and he was in good spirits, laughing and cutting up. A few days later, the kids did a drive-by. They wheeled him out and the guys drove by and waved. By then, he wasn't very aware of what was going on. I think everyone knew what was coming."

Craft had been the honoree for Carolina's Cancer Awareness game in 2023 and would of course be recognized for the same game in 2024, set for Georgia Tech on Oct. 12. The question was, would he make it that long? He was moved into hospice care that week.

"I told the guys last Thursday, you need to go see him, you need to say goodbye," Brown says. "They hugged his neck and saw the tubes. They knew how sick he was."

September texted Brown at 1:30 Saturday morning saying the medical staff thought Tylee would likely not make it through the night. But he did and she was faced with the question late Saturday morning whether to leave her son and join a dozen other family members to be recognized after the first quarter in Kenan Stadium.

"Saturday morning, we knew he could go at any time," September says. "His aunt was an ICU nurse for nine years, she could stay with him. We talked about it. We said that Tylee would want us to go to the game, to celebrate him."

Mom and coach locked into a two-minute embrace on the field as the video tribute played and the Kenan Stadium masses stood in quiet reverence. To finish the tribute, Tylee was feted not with a moment of silence but with 13 seconds of celebration. Brown raised his arms to lead the cheers with his eyes flooded with tears. Soon after, Jones, wearing Craft's No. 13 jersey, caught a touchdown pass for Carolina's 13th point of the game.

"To wear his number and score a touchdown for him was awesome," Jones says. "He's in a better place. You remember the good times."

September left the stadium and rushed back to the hospice center.

"I felt like Tylee would not want me to be in the room when he took his last breath," she says. "He was always worried about me. He'd want me to be okay, to not worry about him. I told him it's okay to die, don't sit here and keep fighting. I was rushing down the hallway. I was 10 seconds from entering the room and I heard a cry. He had taken his last breath. I walked in and hugged him. It was time. The needles and the radiation and the nausea built up. He couldn't taste his food. He was tired and didn't have any energy."

September posted a photograph of her clutching her son's withered forearm on Facebook with the message, "I love you Ty, You're not in pain anymore."

If there were a single point of light in this dark story of Tylee Craft's death, it was that he succumbed after the beginning of the Tar Heels' game against Georgia Tech and that the Tar Heels have an open date this week. The week has been one of healing, closure and celebration and will culminate Sunday afternoon when the Tar Heel players, coaches and staff travel to Sumter for Tylee's memorial service. Brown has hammered home the point that a team mired in a four-game losing streak has no business sulking and pointing fingers when everyone is still alive and well and able to run around a hundred-yard field chasing some guy with a ball.

"Tylee was not a quitter," his mother says. "He would not want people to be sad. He'd want them to remember the good times and cherish those moments."

"This young man fought so hard for his two and a half years," Brown says. "The doctors told us he outlived what he should've. And he did it with a spirit, and he did it with a smile on his face. He didn't miss a meeting, he didn't miss a practice … he's just an incredible young person.

"This week there is a sense on our team to not waste our loss. Learn from it, build on it and help all of us live a better life."

Forever now around Kenan Stadium and Carolina football when running sprints in the summer heat is too much or it's daunting to find the energy for one more third-and-short push, the Tar Heels can draw inspiration from the small round stickers posted in profusion on lockers and helmets and notebooks:

"If Tylee can, you can too."

Chapel Hill writer Lee Pace (Carolina '79) has been writing about Tar Heel football under the "Extra Points" banner since 1990 and reporting from the sidelines on radio broadcasts since 2004. Write him at leepace7@gmail.com and follow him @LeePaceTweet.

Scoreboard Slider

University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Tylee Craft

J.J. Jones

Drake Maye

Kobe Paysour

Related Videos