Former BYU linebacker Larry Carr’s tireless crusade to save football and football players — and anyone else with a brain injury — received a big shot in the arm last month. Two shots, actually.

First, the scientific publication Journal of Neurotrauma — a respected publication not known for being an easy grader — accepted a research paper that reports positive results from a season-long study involving BYU football players using the infrared light therapy known as transcranial photobiomodulation (tPBM): a treatment that Larry swears rehabilitated his brain and saved him from suicide seven years ago.

Second, Tom Holmoe, BYU’s recently retired athletic director, and former BYU and NFL player Jim Herrmann volunteered for the latest light therapy study being conducted at the University of Utah by neuropsychologists Elisabeth Wilde and Carrie Esopenko, co-directors of the Traumatic Brain Injury and Concussion Center in the School of Medicine.

Holmoe and Herrmann didn’t sign up to have their brains studied because they heard about the upcoming article, they volunteered because they were already aware of the positive news. Namely, that before-and-after images of people’s brains show healthy changes that aren’t just anecdotal, but actual physiological improvements.

And why is Tom and Jim’s participation in the latest study important?

Because they are not only the two most recognizable people to participate to date, but they have also agreed to have their results made public when the study concludes in late January or February.

In previous studies conducted over the past five years, football players, firefighters, boxers and athletes from a variety of other contact sports have helped generate the data, but always anonymously.

Those testees included more than 100 active BYU football players who wore the infrared light therapy headsets during the 2021, 2024 and 2025 seasons. As BYU’s athletic director, it was Holmoe who authorized those studies, which received the support of head coach Kalani Sitake as well as the team’s medical staff.

Intrigued by the possibilities from what he observed, after Holmoe stepped down as AD earlier this year, he decided that as a “retired citizen” he could participate in the newest study without showing any bias. If light therapy is as viable as the evidence suggests, the number of people it could help is virtually uncountable. A number that includes himself.

Holmoe played defensive back on four conference-winning football teams at BYU from 1978-82, followed by a seven-year pro career with the San Francisco 49ers, where he won three Super Bowl rings. All that football, especially in an era when you led with your head, meant a lot of contact. He had his share of concussions, including one his rookie year against the Raiders.

“It was my first game in the NFL and I hit this opponent at the goal line, head to head,” Holmoe remembered. “We both went down. I got up and meandered off the field, but I was really groggy. The next day at practice the doctor said I’d had a concussion. I asked, ‘How do you know that?’ He said, ‘Because we asked you what team you played for and you said, Seattle Seahawks.’”

Holmoe, 65, said he doesn’t have any symptoms that would suggest he has CTE, the most severe brain damage associated with former football players. “I don’t have headaches, anxiety, depression. I feel good; I feel very fortunate,” he said. But he’s also practical and proactive.

After playing football that many years, “I have brain injury to some degree, I must have,” he said.

If light therapy can help reverse any damage — as Larry Carr and many others insist — he has a vested interest to find out.

“I like the research so far,” he said, “I’m a bio major so I get it for the most part. It looks promising. I want to help and participate.”

Herrmann’s career as a defensive end at BYU culminated with the 1984 national championship. He went on to play parts of two injury-plagued seasons in the NFL.

He has since paid the price for “all those three points of contact drills.” He’s had numerous back surgeries, the latest for an artificial disc replacement.

“Based on my surgeries and playing the line for too long, I know my brain’s not perfect,” said Herrmann, 64. “I don’t know exactly what’s happening with this therapy, but I’m super excited to find out. Larry’s got an unbelievable story. I believe it’s changed his life. You look at all the evidence, and the MRIs, and I don’t know how you deny it. I still have the lawyer in me that makes me choose my words wisely, but yeah, from all accounts this looks like something that will move the needle.”

Carr, who has a Ph.D. in exercise physiology and assists Drs. Wilde and Esopenko and their team with their research at the University of Utah, welcomes Holmoe and Herrmann to the latest study. “Their participation is invaluable to add credibility and awareness,” he said. “I have complete confidence they will find positive results.”

Carr, who played linebacker at BYU from 1972-74, is also confident that his alma mater’s use of the light therapy headsets during the research year of 2021 as well as over the past two seasons has not only helped keep football players’ brains healthy, it has also been a contributing factor in the team’s 85% winning record during those years. A brain that doesn’t deteriorate over the course of the season results in better reaction times, cognitive processing speed and physical strength. “It gives them that three percent edge that allows them to win at the end of the game,” he said.

“Of course on-field patterns are only anecdotal,” he said. “However, considering the emotional, cognitive, motor and brain physiology data collected over five years, you do not need a Ph.D. in neuroscience or physiology to recognize the pattern and the hugely positive health and performance benefits of this technology. Data is data. I don’t know why anyone would not use this.”

For more information, contact Larry Carr at larry.carr@hsc.utah.edu.