During Thursday night’s game against the New England Patriots, a routine sideline play turned into something far more serious for a member of the Indianapolis Colts‘ coaching staff. A collision near the bench sent one coach to the ground, and the reaction from players and medical staff made it clear that this wasn’t a minor knock.

“#Colts STC Brian Mason suffered a knee injury on the sideline during the last play of tonight’s preseason opener, a league source tells @TheAthleticNFL . He’s flying back to Indy with the team tonight. The Colts hope to find out more tomorrow/in the coming days,” James Boyd posted on X.

Colts special teams coordinator Brian Mason was looking on to the field with the other coaches and players on the final play of Thursday night’s preseason opener against the Patriots. The anxious look on the field was as the game was all tied up at 13. However, it ended in a tie with Mason suffering a serious knee injury.

What happened was a Colts player and a Patriots player got tangled up while blocking each other and came flying off the field, straight into the Colts’ sideline.

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Mason saw it coming and tried to get out of the way, but the tense moment of the last play delayed his action. He got caught in the collision and went down hard, clearly in a lot of pain. Team doctors rushed over to check on him right there on the field, then took him back to the locker room to get a proper look at the injury.

“He got rolled up right on the sideline that last play,” Colts head coach Shane Steichen said. “So we’ll see. He’s getting evaluated for his knee right now.”

It’s not something you see often, a coach getting hurt on the sideline, but it’s happened before. Commanders coach Dan Quinn ended up with a bloody face last season after colliding with Marcus Mariota during a game. And back in 2011, Saints coach Sean Payton (now with the Broncos) broke his tibia and tore his MCL when tight end Jimmy Graham came flying off the field and into his leg.

While its remain to be seen whether Mason will return soon or not, one thing certain is that his coaching on the sidelines will be missed.

Special team performance under Mason

Mason’s now in his fourth year leading special teams for the Colts, backed by 19 years of coaching under his belt. And last season really showed it. The Colts had the second-best kickoff return average in the entire league (28.8 yards) and gave up the fewest punt return yards of any team (6.3).

Their kickers were nearly automatic too, converting field goals at a 94.4% clip, the second-highest rate in the NFL. That’s especially impressive given they had to rotate through three different kickers over the course of the season: Spencer Shrader, who went 13-for-14, Blake Grupe, who went a perfect 11-for-11, and Michael Badgley, who made 10 of his 11 attempts.

As for Shrader, coming back from last year’s ACL and MCL tear hasn’t been simple. Going into Thursday’s game, he wasn’t feeling great about how camp had gone.

“Going into this game, I didn’t really feel like I had a lot of positive momentum,” he said. “But then, I was like, ‘Well, none of that matters now. It’s a fresh day. It’s a new start.'”

Then he drilled a 61-yard field goal that helped force the 13-13 tie. He says the people around him made the difference.

“(General manager) Chris Ballard, (head coach) Shane Steichen and (special teams coordinator) Brian Mason and my teammates have been really supportive,” he said. “I haven’t felt pressure from anyone else. The pressure is from me.”

Even after nailing the longest kick of his career, Shrader isn’t getting ahead of himself. He’s taking it day by day, game by game, kick by kick approach.

As for Mason, only time will tell how this injury plays out.