About a week after the Jets’ season ended in January, head coach Todd Bowles went to a New Jersey hospital and had a benign mass removed from his throat, Darryl Slater of the Newark Star-Ledger reports.
“It was almost the size of a golf ball,” Bowles said Wednesday at the NFL Scouting Combine.
Bowles emphasized that his throat will not require any post-surgery treatment — like radiation — because the mass was found to not be malignant.
“I’m OK,” Bowles said. “I’m fine.”
Bowles was initially concerned when he discovered the mass early in the regular season. He visited a doctor, who told Bowles he didn’t need to worry about the mass, and that he could wait until after the season to have it removed. So that’s what he did.
“It was just how much pain tolerance I could take,” Bowles said. “It was fine. It wasn’t a big deal. It was pressing up against the artery, and I had trouble swallowing a little bit. I didn’t want to get it done during the season, if something went wrong. So I just waited until after the season.”