‘I need to be here’: Tylee Craft goes from wide receiver to assistant coach after cancer diagnosis
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Anna Katherine Clemmons
Mitch Mason sat in his mother’s hospital room in Tampa. It was June 11, 2024 — his birthday — and his phone buzzed with text messages. He’d flown to Florida from Chapel Hill, where he has served as UNC football’s team chaplain for 13 years.
“How are you holding up?” friends texted as Mason sat with his mother. She was unconscious and on a ventilator. And she was dying.
One player had sent a steady stream of messages throughout the day.
How you doin’, OG? UNC wide receiver Tylee Craft wrote.
Chap, I always got you, and you got me.
“That meant a little more, because I knew he was dealing with sickness,” Mason says.
Tylee was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer on March 14, 2022. He has undergone numerous treatments, but the cancer still spread through his body and brain. He has endured multiple ER stays. Arriving at UNC at a healthy 200 pounds at 6-foot-5, Tylee has lost more than 20 pounds, gained weight back, and lost it again.
“To be facing that, and yet to be more concerned with telling everyone else, ‘Keep fighting, I got you,'” Mason says. “That’s just Tylee.”
Tylee has refused to let cancer take over his life. He is enrolled in graduate courses toward his master’s in applied professional studies after graduating in May with a bachelor’s degree in exercise and sports science/sports administration. He wore a TyleeStrong T-shirt under his gown as he walked across the graduation stage.
Football is what brings Tylee joy. He shifted from active player to student coach this summer. He is at almost every meeting, workout and practice, sometimes walking directly to the facility from the hospital. He was elected to the team’s leadership council this season.
His diagnosis is one no one wishes for. And yet, it has given him a new purpose, a platform and the ability to make an impact he had never imagined.
Tylee first played football at age 7. Long and lean, he always seemed taller than everyone else, his mother, September Craft, says. Initially, his coach put him at quarterback. But he wanted to play receiver.
“I love catching passes, scoring touchdowns, running,” Tylee said. “Just having fun with my teammates, making memories.”
He totaled close to 1,000 receiving yards and 11 touchdowns in his last two high school seasons. He also excelled in the classroom, taking honors classes and graduating high school a semester early.
“Tylee was always a guy we could count on,” Sumter High School football coach Mark Barnes said. “[A] 4.0 GPA, an overachiever in every aspect. These are comments that we tend to embellish when people are going through hardships. But Tylee was that guy.”
Tylee and September visited Chapel Hill on a Friday in March during his junior year; that Monday morning, UNC wide receivers coach Lonnie Galloway called Tylee and offered him a scholarship. Two days later, he called Galloway and told him he wanted to be a Tar Heel.
“It was just a different feeling here,” September said. “Like we’d known each other for years.”
Tylee played in seven games in the 2020 season, primarily on special teams. He struggled with turf toe before fall camp and appeared in four games in 2021.
In December of 2021, Tylee returned home to Sumter for a few days before Christmas. He told his mom he’d been having a lot of back pain, which worsened over the next month. Tylee always smiled. He was easygoing, calm and steady. The only time September had seen him cry was after losing a playoff game in high school. But on a FaceTime call on March 9, he was crying.
Later that day, Tylee was riding in an elevator at the UNC football facility alongside Sally Brown, head coach Mack Brown’s wife. Suddenly, he doubled over in pain. Sally opened the elevator doors and called for help. Defensive line coach Tim Cross was standing in the hall and helped Sally lift Tylee. They rushed him to the ER.
Dr. Jared Weiss, the section chief of thoracic and head/neck oncology at UNC Chapel Hill Hospital, was not scheduled to be on call. But an oncology fellow asked him to come in and examine a young patient who had just arrived.
“What struck me most was how incredibly supported he was,” Weiss said. “I don’t think I’ve ever before or since seen a little ER space so packed with people.”
Five days later, Weiss told Tylee and September that Tylee had metastatic Stage 4 cancer in his lungs, liver and spine. He would need to start treatment immediately.
“The doctor said that if Tylee didn’t come into the hospital, he would’ve passed away in less than a month,” September said. “He was basically dying and he didn’t know it.”
The median lung cancer patient is 70 years old. Despite the stigma around lung cancers, many of those diagnosed are not regular smokers or, like Tylee, have never smoked. According to the American Lung Association (ALA), the five-year survival rate of metastatic lung cancer patients is about 18.6%.
Tylee took the semester off from school. His initial treatments were once every three weeks. Aside from a rash on his hands and feet, hiccups and fevers, Tylee says he has felt fine.
But each time he ran a fever, September had to rush Tylee to the hospital. He needed to stay for five days to ensure he didn’t have an infection. The hospital was still crowded due to COVID. Sometimes they had to wait 36 hours in the ER for a bed to open up. The beds were short, and Tylee was often uncomfortable.
After two treatments of four drugs (two chemotherapy and two immunotherapy), the cancer shrunk dramatically. But that summer, his cancer grew again. From August to December 2022, Tylee underwent a new type of chemotherapy. He focused on classes and football, attending every game he could. Though he wasn’t able to play, he still participated in drills when he felt well enough.
“You wouldn’t know to this day that he had cancer if you didn’t know,” Galloway said. “He carries himself greatly as far as, he comes to practice, he goes to meetings, he goes to get treatment, he comes back to practice. I’ll say, ‘You know, Tylee, you don’t have to be here.’ He’ll say, ‘Coach, I need to be here.'”
At one early-morning practice, Tylee stood on the sidelines, throwing up from his chemotherapy.
“Why don’t you head back to your apartment?” Mack Brown said. “I’ll get someone to drive you over there.”
“No. I need to be here, Coach,” Tylee told him.
His teammates knew he had cancer. But Tylee didn’t want it to be a focal point.
“He’ll have chemo at 6 a.m. and then be at practice,” wide receiver J.J. Jones said. “To see that was like, OK, his determination, his resilience — that spread throughout the team. He is such a motivational leader for everybody.”
Sally Brown and Tylee talked regularly. Tylee rarely asks for help, but sometimes, Sally says, he’ll send a subtle message. “If you happen to be near Cook-Out today, I’d love a Snickers milkshake,” he’ll text. “And I’ll just happen to be near there,” Sally Brown said, smiling.
Throughout 2023, Tylee underwent immunotherapy treatments. Initially, the results were positive. But by the fall of 2023, his cancer had grown again. Weiss found a clinical trial for a drug that sounded promising, but which had yet to receive FDA approval. Weiss and Tylee appealed to the company for use, and Weiss wrote an entire protocol for Tylee, who was the first patient to receive compassionate use of the drug. It, too, worked — for a time.
At each turn, he was calm, measured. He has not screamed or lashed out when scans show the cancer has spread. “Every patient is entitled to break down sometimes,” Weiss said. “To fall apart, to reconstruct. There’s nothing wrong with that — that’s human. But that’s not what Tylee did.”
In May of 2023, scans revealed the cancer had spread to his brain. That fall, Tylee took chemotherapy pills that had a higher chance of reaching the brain. Still, he was at practice, offering advice to the receivers when he didn’t feel well enough to play.
And then, he was asked to give another kind of advice. On Jan. 31, UNC tight end Cal Tierney underwent surgery for abnormal lymph nodes. Five days later, doctors diagnosed him with nodular lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin lymphoma. Tierney was shocked — his biopsies that fall had returned as normal.
He began four rounds of chemotherapy in late February. Before he began treatment, Tierney talked to Tylee. Brown said that in 36 years of head coaching, he’d never had an active player with cancer. Now, he had two. Tylee talked about what to expect in terms of side effects and offered to help in any way. “That gave me a big sense of security,” Tierney says. “Here’s a guy in our family, and some of the things he’s done, give or take, are what I’ll be going through.”
Tierney returned to his home in Charlotte for treatment. Scans on May 2 revealed the chemotherapy had worked and he was in remission.
“The biggest lesson I have learned from cancer and from Tylee is the silver lining,” Tierney said. “How much more opportunity can you find in what you’re going through? He’s the king of that, in how much he has made an impact on others. The easiest thing is to lay down and fall into despair. And that is the opposite of what he’s done.” Tylee finished a round of off-label chemotherapy over the summer, which shrunk the tumors in his body, but not his brain. The next step, Weiss says, is tumor-treating fields, where Tylee will wear a head covering to help control the cancer in his brain.
Like his prior treatment choices, which he has made in collaboration with Weiss, Tylee has repeatedly opted for non-standard therapies. Even if it means he is the first person to try this approach to cancer treatment.
“He’s making smart gambles, and they are paying off,” Weiss said. Or, in football vernacular, “he has connected Hail Marys at least three times.”
“And,” Weiss added, “that’s why he’s alive.”
Teammates said that once you know him well, Tylee is a jokester. “It’s like peeling back an onion one layer at a time once you get to the root of Tylee,” Jones said. “He’s just an amazing person.”
Tylee is introspective, his big, hazel eyes taking in what is happening around him. He loves movies, especially “Bad Boys.” He loves history and traveling. This past spring break, he visited Spain with his girlfriend.
But football remains his passion. Earlier this month, as the temperature hovered around 80 degrees at 10 a.m., the Tar Heels ran from the practice facility’s covered field onto the open-air turf. Players divided up by position group. Mack Brown wore a headset and spoke as he walked the field. “How can I get better today?” Brown encouraged his players to ask themselves.
As the receivers stood in one corner near an end zone, Tylee, dressed in shorts, a T-shirt, and a bucket hat, shadowed a catching drill. He talked with several receivers, motioning with his hands as he gave advice. He sometimes took a knee as the sun beat down. “I wish I was playing,” Tylee says, when asked what he is thinking as he watches games.
Brown walked over just before fourth-quarter drills. He put his arm around Tylee’s waist, smiling and talking.
“What I’ve told him is, we have so many young receivers, you be their coach,” Brown said. “We’re hoping he gets to play again, but I think after he gets cleared, he has to have a year to get his body back. So it’s a long road to play.”
September, who works as a deputy sheriff, frequently drives from Sumter to Chapel Hill. She and Tylee stay at the SECU Family House, an extended-stay home that provides housing, meals and transportation for UNC Hospital patients and family members dealing with serious illness. Mack and Sally Brown host a women’s football clinic each August, and they chose the SECU Family House as this year’s beneficiary. Both September and Tylee spoke at the Aug. 19 event, and several items were auctioned, including a framed jersey signed by Tylee. Sally said they hoped to bring in $30,000 total. They raised $93,000. (Tylee has also raised money for his own treatments through the sale of bracelets and T-shirts.)
Tylee is often asked to speak, whether to a group of young football players, a fellow cancer patient or in accepting an award. (He won the Disney Spirit Award in 2022, among others). “It’s just something I do,” Tylee said of speaking. “I wouldn’t say I like it. But I do it because I guess it makes [others] feel good.”
He has numerous tattoos which, he says, help tell his story.
One on his right shoulder reads, “Let Your Faith Be Bigger Than Your Fear.”
Mason, the team chaplain, met Tylee when the latter was a recruit. “The most soft-spoken and the biggest smile,” Mason said of his first impression.
He called Tylee “Cadillac” because “once he gets going, good Lord, he can go.” The two have remained close ever since. Some of his favorite moments, Mason says, have been praying together with September and Tylee. “No doctor has a timeline on what Tylee is going through — only God knows that,” September says. “It’s not up to us. And he is still fighting.”
Four years ago, Mason was diagnosed with idiopathic small fiber polyneuropathy, a rare disease where the body’s nerves break down. While the disease is not fatal, it affects his quality of life. On some days, Mason cannot walk or even move. He takes 20 medications daily and has infusions every 28 days.
In 2022, Mason was watching a baseball game on TV. As he watched the player standing in the batter’s box, he thought of Tylee. “Keep swinging,” he thought. Keep swinging has become a mantra for them both.
“But when I think about me, no, I think about what Tylee has to go through and his fight,” Mason said. “That is what gives me the encouragement to keep swinging.”
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Kiley McDaniel
MLB trade season has officially kicked into high gear with contenders looking to add to their rosters for the stretch run ahead and rebuilding teams aiming to stockpile young players with an eye to the future before Thursday’s 6 p.m. ET deadline arrives.
As the moves go down, you can probably form your own opinion of the MLB veterans headed to new teams, but it’s much more difficult to figure out what to make of the minor leaguers who have moved.
Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Here’s our running ranking of every notable prospect who was dealt during July sorted by tiers using my Future Value grades so you can see where they slot in an MLB top 100 list or your team’s farm system ranking.
This story will be updated with top prospects headed to new teams added to the list with every new deal, so come back every time a move goes down to see which stars of tomorrow are on the move this month.
40+ FV tier
Acquired from Seattle Mariners in Josh Naylor deal
A 2023 11th-rounder out of Texas A&M, Garcia was a sleeper in the Seattle system who broke through as a starter in 2024. This season, he was moved into a full-time relief role, leading to his big league debut earlier this month.
He has an upper-body-reliant delivery with very short extension and a near-sidearm slot that nonetheless creates a lot of velocity, with his fastball peaking at 100.4 mph this season and living at 95-98 mph with his plus sinker. He also mixes in an 88-90 mph cutter and 84-86 mph sweeper that are both plus pitches. Garcia’s fastball command improving and the cutter continuing to be a useful weapon against righties are keys to him becoming a late-inning reliever.
40 FV tier
Acquired from New York Yankees in Ryan McMahon deal
Herring signed for $800,000 after being selected in the sixth round of the 2024 draft. He made only one start over two seasons at LSU but showed starter traits. Through 16 appearances as a starter this year, pitching across both Single-A levels, that theory has mostly held up.
His 88-92 mph heater touches 94 and looks as if it’ll be a fringe-to-average pitch, while his slider is above average and his changeup (which should be used more often) also flashes above average. He’ll move up to the 40+ FV tier with a little more bulk of performance and/or a strong finish/promotion in Double-A.
Acquired from New York Mets in Gregory Soto deal
Aracena was a low-profile international signee, getting a $70,000 bonus in 2022 out of the Dominican Republic. He sat 90-94 mph for his first two pro seasons, then his velo exploded in 2024 to 95-98, hitting 100 mph. This year he’s been even a bit higher, sitting 96-99 and hitting 101 mph at 20 years old as a starter in Single-A.
The reason he isn’t ranked higher is his command is below average to the point that his likely career outcome is as a reliever. His fastball also plays below its velocity right now due to his command issues and higher arm slot, which creates a nonideal plane and a cutting action to the pitch. His 89-95 mph slider (possibly a cutter and slider that run together) is nasty, a clear plus pitch, while his changeup is rarely used and rudimentary.
The raw ability here is impressive and Aracena is young and athletic enough to get another year or two to prove he can start, but he also has late-inning potential as a reliever if that doesn’t work out. Aracena will move into the 40+ FV tier with either a tick more of command, developing a legitimate changeup or just keeping his head above water performance-wise as a starter in High-A.
Acquired from the Detroit Tigers in Chris Paddack deal
Jimenez is a 19-year-old, switch-hitting catcher playing in Rookie ball who has a solid chance to stick behind the plate long term, but, as you’d guess, he still has some defensive work to do. He’s a slightly above-average framer (particularly to his glove side) and has above-average arm strength (catching 34% of baserunners this year), but is a below-average blocker of pitches in the dirt.
He’d benefit from getting more agile behind the plate but the athleticism is there to do so: Jimenez is a solid-average runner right now despite a stout 5-foot-9 frame. His raw power projects as fringe-to-average given his lack of physical projection, though he has solid ball flight (think 15ish homers at peak), with a grade more power as a left-handed hitter. Jimenez’s contact and on-base skills grade about average, so the sales pitch here is an overall average offensive threat, which is enough to warrant playing him at other positions to get his bat in the lineup as a platoon option, but hoping he can progress in all phases enough to become a primary catcher.
5. Ashton Izzi, RHP, Arizona Diamondbacks
Acquired from Seattle Mariners in Josh Naylor deal
Izzi was a classic projection righty who signed for $1.1 million after being selected in the fourth round of the 2022 draft out of an Illinois high school.
He has delivered on that projection, with his average fastball velo having crept up from 93.1 to 94.0 to 94.5 in his three pro seasons. His four-seamer is a solid-average pitch, while his slider can get to average with slightly better locations and his sweeper is an above-average pitch, maybe plus.
The issue is Izzi’s sinker; although it has a fine velocity/movement combination, it is too center-cut in the zone and has been hammered by hitters while being used almost as much as his four-seamer. He also doesn’t use his changeup much — but probably should, especially as he dials back his sinker. With some progress in his mix and locations, this is a No. 4 starter package, but Izzi is more of a long reliever as currently constituted.
Acquired from Kansas City Royals in Randal Grichuk deal
Hoffmann was a 12th-round pick out of Illinois in the 2021 draft who was traded to the Royals in 2022 and finished the season in Double-A, beating predraft expectations. He was seen as a potential back-end starter at that point, but moved to full-time short relief this season en route to making his big league debut.
His mid-90s fastball is a solid-average pitch that plays up due to his funk and deception, and his main weapon is a plus changeup that tunnels well to the bottom of the zone. His slider is a clear third pitch and is fringy, which is why he was moved to relief to focus on using his two best pitches. With better fastball locations, Hoffmann could move from middle relief into the later innings.
35+ FV tier
Acquired from New York Yankees in Amed Rosario deal
Beeter was a second-round pick in the 2020 draft and has slowly moved down the starter-to-reliever spectrum to becoming a full-time reliever for the first time in 2025. He’s 26 years old with five career big league appearances under his belt, but Beeter is still in Triple-A for now because of his walk rate: 7.2 per 9 innings — including issuing seven walks in his last 8⅓ innings pitched.
Beeter is still a solid prospect because of his 65-grade slider and above-average fastball that peaks at 99 mph. His fastball command is the variable that, with more progress, could turn him into a late-inning reliever, but Beeter is a higher-variance middle reliever who needs to avoid walks in Triple-A to get his next big league shot.
8. Browm Martinez, CF, Washington Nationals
Acquired from New York Yankees in Amed Rosario deal
Martinez signed for a $130,000 bonus last January and was solid last summer in the Dominican Summer League before having a huge repeat season in the league this year — posting an OPS of 1.139 driven by higher contact rates.
There is still a wide range of potential outcomes for Martinez as an 18-year-old playing in the lowest level of the minors, but the key here is he has above-average bat control and pitch selection at the plate, arguably the two most important things to demonstrate at lower levels.
He’s also a solid-average runner who has 34 career stolen bases, and that speed could allow him to stay in center field. There’s some physical projection left given his age, but his power projects to continue to be below average, so sticking in center would be key to his long-term value.
9. Josh Grosz, RHP, Colorado Rockies
Acquired from New York Yankees in Ryan McMahon deal
Grosz is a potential No. 5 starter/swingman type with some feel and deception from his abruptly quick delivery. He throws a 92-95 mph dead-zone fastball with heavy tail that plays around average, an above-average changeup and a fringy slider.
He has a tougher road to being a solid big leaguer if he can’t stick as a starter because most teams prefer a middle reliever to have an above-average breaking ball to get right-handed hitters out.
10. Cameron Foster, RHP, Baltimore Orioles
Acquired from New York Mets in Gregory Soto deal
Foster is a 26-year-old long reliever who sits 93-96 and hits 99 mph from a high slot (it’s on the whole an average big league pitch). He also mixes in an 86-88 mph cutter (a solid-average pitch), an 81-84 mph slurve (an above-average pitch), and a big loopy 75-78 mph curveball (effective as a fourth offering that’s used in certain situations). He’s a solid back-end-of-the-roster-type utility arm who can be used in multiple roles and should debut this year or next. He needs to be added to the 40-man roster after the season to protect from the Rule 5 draft.
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Jeff Legwold
BOULDER, Colo. — University of Colorado football coach Deion Sanders announced Monday that he had undergone surgery to remove his bladder after doctors discovered a tumor there. Sanders said, since the surgery, there are no traces of cancer, and he will continue to coach this season.
In a packed Touchdown Club in the Dal Ward Athletic Center, Sanders appeared with Dr. Janet Kukreja, director of urological oncology at University of Colorado Cancer Center, and answered some of the questions that have swirled around him throughout the offseason.
The 57-year-old Sanders has largely been out of the public eye in recent months, save for an appearance at Big 12 media days earlier this month when he acknowledged Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark for repeatedly checking in on him and praised Colorado athletic director Rick George.
Sanders deflected questions about his health at Big 12 media days and previously had not publicly offered any specifics. In July his son, Deion Jr., posted a video on social media in which Deion Sanders is heard saying he was dealing with a health issue and that “I ain’t all the way recovered.”
In the video he was seen stepping into an ice bath as well as shooting a basketball and a walk with his daughter. Sanders said in May he had lost about 14 pounds as he had limited contact around the program during the team’s spring and summer workouts.
Sanders has previously dealt with serious health issues. He has had bouts with blood clots in his legs, had two toes amputated in 2022 and emergency surgery in June 2023 to treat the persistent clots, including one in his thigh in one leg and several just below his knee in his other leg.
On the field, Sanders is set to begin his third season at the school. With his son, Shedeur, at quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter, college football’s most accomplished two-way player in the modern era, the Buffaloes finished 9-4 last season with an Alamo Bowl appearance. Sanders’ son Shilo, a safety for the Buffaloes for the past two seasons, has also moved on to the NFL, along with several high-profile players on offense.
The top storyline on the field for the Buffaloes is the battle to replace Shedeur behind center. In two seasons, Sanders completed 71.8% of his passes for 7,364 yards with 64 touchdowns.
It will be the first season Deion Sanders doesn’t coach a high school or college team with Shedeur at quarterback.
Seventeen-year-old true freshman Julian Lewis, a five-star recruit and No. 2 player in the 2025 ESPN 300, and Kaidon Salter, who started 24 games in four seasons at Liberty, will compete for the job.
Cleveland Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase on Monday was placed on non-disciplinary paid leave through Aug. 31 as part of Major League Baseball’s investigation into sports gambling, the second Guardians pitcher to be caught up in the inquiry.
Guardians right-hander Luis Ortiz remains on non-disciplinary paid leave after originally being placed there July 3 after unusual gambling activity on two pitches he threw for balls, sources told ESPN. Ortiz’s leave was later extended to Aug. 31.
In a statement, the Guardians said “no additional players or club personnel are expected to be impacted” by the investigation. The investigation, a source confirmed, has not turned up information tying other players with the team to sports gambling.
Clase, 27, is a three-time All-Star and two-time winner of the Mariano Rivera Award as the best relief pitcher in the American League. He finished third in AL Cy Young voting last year when he posted a 0.61 ERA over 74.1 innings. In 47.1 innings this season, Clase has a 3.23 ERA and has already allowed more hits this year (46) than last (39) while striking out 47 and walking 12.
His ties to the investigation that started following a June 27 alert from IC360, a firm that monitors betting markets for abnormalities, are unclear. Sportsbooks and gambling operators were alerted after a spike in action on Ortiz’s first pitch in the bottom of the second inning against the Seattle Mariners on June 15 and in the top of the third inning against the St. Louis Cardinals on June 27, according to sources. In both cases, unusual amounts of money were wagered on the pitches being a ball or hit-batsman from betting accounts in New York, New Jersey and Ohio, according to a copy of the IC360 alert obtained by ESPN. Both pitches wound up well outside the strike zone.
At the All-Star Game in mid-July, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said while he still supports legal gambling because of the transparency regulation offers, he was concerned about so-called microbets, such as ones that offer action on individual pitches.
“There are certain types of bets that strike me as unnecessary and particularly vulnerable,” Manfred said. “I know there was a lot of sports betting, tons of it that went on illegally and we had no idea, no idea what threats there were to the integrity of the play because it was all not transparent,” he added. “I firmly believe that the transparency and monitoring that we have in place now, as a result of the legalization and the partnerships that we’ve made, puts us in a better position to protect baseball than we were in before.”
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