NFL Coach Hospitalized After On-Field Collison With Opposing Player Before Game

By Brian Jones

An NFL coach was involved in an on-field collision with a player and had to be sent to the hospital. Atlanta Falcons defensive coordinator Dean Pees was carted off the field after clashing with a New Orleans Saints player during warmups 40 minutes before the Falcons-Saints game in New Orleans. In the third quarter, the Falcons announced that Pees was treated and released from the University Medical Center New Orleans and rejoined the team for the flight back to Atlanta once the game was over. 

"Thankfully, Dean is back with us," Falcons coach Arthur Smith said, per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "He's all right. Obviously, that was a scary moment in pregame and seeing him get on the board and carted off. Certainly, the defensive staff, Frank Bush and those guys rallied. Thankfully, Dean is all right."  

Frank Bush, the Falcons' linebackers coach, took Pees' place when it comes to calling defensive plays. The team lost the game 21-18, but everyone was thinking about Pees and making sure he was okay. "We called them up at the end of warmups; we said our prayers for him," Smith said. "Tried to update them and be honest about the situation. Everybody in the stadium saw it. It was a scary moment for him. Thankfully, the Saints doctors and our doctors did a helluva job. Got him evaluated and will continue to monitor him."

"We were just trying to hold it down for Coach P, do what he expects us to do, what we're supposed to do," Falcons cornerback A.J. Terrell said. "Coach Bush was confident in what he was calling, making sure he had us in the right position. We just had to make more plays than we did."  

Pees, 73, is in his second season as the Falcons' defensive coordinator. He joined the Falcons after spending the 2018 and 2019 seasons as the Tennessee Titans defensive coordinator and retired after the 2019 season. In his coaching career, Pees also spent time as a defensive coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens, and New England Patriots. He won a Super Bowl as a linebackers coach for the Patriots in 2004 and as the defensive coordinator for the Ravens in 2012. 

Pees is also a longtime college football coach. From 1998-2003, Pees was the head coach at Kent State and posted a 17-51 record. He also was an assistant coach at Notre Dame, Michigan State, Toledo, Navy, Miami (Ohio) and Division II school Findlay. 

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