Jim Tyrer was an offensive tackle at Ohio City and played in the AFL for Dallas Texans/Kansas City Chiefs. He played for these teams from 1961 to 1973. Then he played for Washington before retiring in 1974.
He was considered a star and it was odd how he didn’t make it onto the Hall of Fame. Rick Grosslin, 19, who is a former NFL player, and general columnist at the Dallas Morning News said that Tyrer was “the most qualified candidate in the senior pool. There are hundreds of players in that pool and Tyrer is the only one that was six-time, first team all-pro. If you are the best at what you do for six NFL seasons, you are a worthy Hall of Fame candidate. Beyond worthy, in fact.”
All was well until the night Jim Tyrer, 41, shot his 40-year-old wife, Martha, to death in their bedroom before shooting himself.
Jim Tyrer’s youngest daughter, Stephanie said that “We all knew after this something had not been right. This wasn’t the man we knew…You feel like there should have been something you could have done or something you should have recognized. Even though I was 12 or 13, there’s still a little bit of guilt. Why didn’t we pick up on something, or why didn’t we know more?…He probably didn’t understand what was happening to him either.”
Their children say that Martha was a wonderful mother, attending all their games, with the same being for Jim. But like many other athletes, Jim struggled navigating life away from sports.
“I was a 17-year-old,” Brad, the eldest child in the family said, “I was into myself. I knew my dad went to work and came home at night, but I didn’t really know exactly what he was doing. The night that happened, I was in my room lifting weights pretty hard because I was trying to get bigger—I was actually measuring my biceps.”
He continued, “My dad came in, probably around 9, and he basically had the conversation you have with your oldest son.” He continued, “He had the conversation with me like he knew he was never going to see me again. At the time, it was just so out of context and I was kind of focused on something else. Looking back, I remember that conversation really well. He was saying, ‘You’ve been a good son, and I’m proud of you. You need to take care of your brothers and sisters.’ It was just out of the blue. I was like, ‘Okay, Dad.’ That was probably a 20-minute talk, but I know he already knew that he was going to do something.”
Jason Tyrer, the youngest in the family, recalls that his father was acting odd. Jim acted loving around his children, but never overly affectionate. “He didn’t hug us a lot, but at that game he did. I got this kind of—it felt unusual, you know?”
Jim Tyrer was known for having a large head, such that most helmets didn’t fit him too well. And the cause of his head trauma was because the padding was too thin. It wasn’t even half an inch. Some of his children recall him talking about headaches and going to a physician. The people who gave him the helmet had to thin out the padding to make more room for his head.
And even though this murder-suicide case left his children broken, confused, and terrified, after nearly 42 years, they all have their own families.
Brad said, “I think we all just have lived life, the lives our parents would have brought us up to live.”
He was considered a star and it was odd how he didn’t make it onto the Hall of Fame. Rick Grosslin, 19, who is a former NFL player, and general columnist at the Dallas Morning News said that Tyrer was “the most qualified candidate in the senior pool. There are hundreds of players in that pool and Tyrer is the only one that was six-time, first team all-pro. If you are the best at what you do for six NFL seasons, you are a worthy Hall of Fame candidate. Beyond worthy, in fact.”
All was well until the night Jim Tyrer, 41, shot his 40-year-old wife, Martha, to death in their bedroom before shooting himself.
Jim Tyrer’s youngest daughter, Stephanie said that “We all knew after this something had not been right. This wasn’t the man we knew…You feel like there should have been something you could have done or something you should have recognized. Even though I was 12 or 13, there’s still a little bit of guilt. Why didn’t we pick up on something, or why didn’t we know more?…He probably didn’t understand what was happening to him either.”
Their children say that Martha was a wonderful mother, attending all their games, with the same being for Jim. But like many other athletes, Jim struggled navigating life away from sports.
“I was a 17-year-old,” Brad, the eldest child in the family said, “I was into myself. I knew my dad went to work and came home at night, but I didn’t really know exactly what he was doing. The night that happened, I was in my room lifting weights pretty hard because I was trying to get bigger—I was actually measuring my biceps.”
He continued, “My dad came in, probably around 9, and he basically had the conversation you have with your oldest son.” He continued, “He had the conversation with me like he knew he was never going to see me again. At the time, it was just so out of context and I was kind of focused on something else. Looking back, I remember that conversation really well. He was saying, ‘You’ve been a good son, and I’m proud of you. You need to take care of your brothers and sisters.’ It was just out of the blue. I was like, ‘Okay, Dad.’ That was probably a 20-minute talk, but I know he already knew that he was going to do something.”
Jason Tyrer, the youngest in the family, recalls that his father was acting odd. Jim acted loving around his children, but never overly affectionate. “He didn’t hug us a lot, but at that game he did. I got this kind of—it felt unusual, you know?”
Jim Tyrer was known for having a large head, such that most helmets didn’t fit him too well. And the cause of his head trauma was because the padding was too thin. It wasn’t even half an inch. Some of his children recall him talking about headaches and going to a physician. The people who gave him the helmet had to thin out the padding to make more room for his head.
And even though this murder-suicide case left his children broken, confused, and terrified, after nearly 42 years, they all have their own families.
Brad said, “I think we all just have lived life, the lives our parents would have brought us up to live.”
