Loss of UNC football player Tylee Craft to cancer leaves Heels coping with ‘life’s lessons’

There was something about the hug that made Mack Brown know.

The first quarter had ended Saturday in North Carolina’s football game against Georgia Tech. It was Cancer Awareness Day at Kenan Stadium and a ceremony was being held on the field for Tylee Craft, the Tar Heels receiver who had been fighting lung cancer for more than two years.

Everyone could sense that Craft, 23, was losing the battle, that the chemotherapy and radiation treatments had beaten his body down and weakened him too much. Craft’s “spirit and smile” were still ever-present, Brown said, especially around his coaches and teammates, but the disease had taken its toll.

The Tar Heels had dedicated the game to Craft. Brown and others wore shirts and sweaters with “Tylee Strong” on them and there were decals on the players’ helmets.

Wide receiver J.J. Jones asked if he could wear Craft’s jersey number, 13, during the game with “Craft” on the back. The other receivers plan to rotate the jersey during games, Brown said.

Brown had informed the team at Thursday’s practice that Craft was going into hospice care. Brown said the players were told their teammate probably had “two days to two weeks” to live.

“They all ran to see him and hugged him and talked to him and laughed with him,” Brown said Saturday. “We didn’t know.”

And then the ceremony was held. There were 14 members of the Craft family gathered on the field and Brown went over to embrace Craft’s mother, September.

The hug lasted several minutes as a video of Craft was being shown on the scoreboards. It was as if neither wanted to let go.

“She hugged me and cried so hard and was squeezing so hard,” Brown said. ”I figured it wasn’t good …”

It wasn’t. Brown’s wife, Sally, a cancer survivor, had been informed during the game that Craft had passed away. Just after the Heels’ 41-34 loss to the Yellow Jackets, on Jamal Haynes’ 68-yard touchdown run with 16 seconds left, Brown was first told the news.

Entering the locker room, the team was trying its best to deal with the tough ACC loss, the Heels’ third. Then Brown passed the word on Tylee Craft. He was gone.

“This is part of life and we have to learn to utilize the days we have, because we don’t control how many we do have,” Brown said. “I will say this young man fought so hard for his two and half years. The doctors said he outlived what he should have, and he did it with a spirit and he did it with a smile on his face.

“He didn’t miss a meeting, didn’t miss a practice. He coached these other young people. He is an incredible young person.”

Brown said the players were advised before the game to seek out UNC’s mental health workers, to be with friends and around their parents. The parents, Brown said, had been told about Craft leading up to the game and were urged to be on hand, as Craft’s condition was dire.

“He was in a very difficult spot (Friday) with tubes in his nose and mouth, and trying to stay awake,” Brown said. “That was a very difficult thing for the players to go see, too.

“Hopefully, that will help them process, that they saw how tough a shape he was in and they knew it probably wasn’t going to get better.”

Jones, in No. 13, had a 53-yard catch in the game. Later, No. 13 grabbed a short touchdown pass from Jacolby Criswell.

Trailing 34-31 late in the fourth quarter, the Tar Heels moved inside the Georgia Tech 10. There was a chance to take the lead with less than a minute to play.

“I thought we were going to score and win the game and what a wonderful tribute that would be to Tylee,” Brown said.

But it was not to be. Criswell could not connect with tight end John Copenhaver on a third-down pass in the end zone. Noah Burnette kicked a 26-yard field goal with 44 seconds remaining for a 34-34 tie and overtime seemed likely.

But Haynes found a seam and quickly sped through the middle of the UNC defense for his 68-yard winner as the Yellow Jackets won a fourth straight time in the ACC series.

Brown said the program would do more to honor Craft, a former four-star recruit from Sumter, South Carolina, who appeared in seven games as a UNC freshman in 2020 and four the next season. The nutrition center in the Kenan Football Center will be named in his honor, Brown said.

“He had a big smile on his face when we told him we were going to do that, so it was good we were able to tell him,” Brown said.

Brown said team chaplain Mitch Mason visited Craft on Saturday morning. Craft was shown the video and liked it.

“They said he basically said, ‘Tell the guys I love them and goodbye,’ and he went to sleep,’” Brown said.

Brown said he had a player die in a crash when he was Texas. That was sudden and shocking but came just before spring practice began. It was different with Craft. It’s different with cancer.

“I told our players I had a team that won 13 games one time and they didn’t learn as many of life’s lessons as this team,” Brown said. “What I will tell the players (Sunday) is that we had Tylee for 23 years So are we lucky we had him for 23 years and got to learn from him and love him, or would it be better that we never met him?

“We have to handle our grief but we also have to celebrate the person that he was and all that he taught us. Hopefully we can learn life’s lessons from him.”