PHIL DAWSON: THE VERY BEST KICKER IN BROWNS HISTORY
By STEVE KING
Ever since the two “geniuses” – sneaky curmudgeon Joe Banner, the worst team president in Browns history, and creepy, sleazy Mike Lombardi, the worst general manager they’ve ever had – came up with the brilliant idea to let kicker Phil Dawson walk away in free agency following the 2012 season, the club’s kicking situation has been an unmitigated disaster.
It’s still that way thus far this season, in fact. How you’ve seen the kickers messing up on a daily basis out in Berea during training camp? U-g-l-y.
Dawson, who announced on Thursday that he is retiring and will sign a one-day contract so he can do so as a member of the Browns, is the best kicker in team history.
Yes, that’s right, the best. He is even better than Pro Football Hall of Famer Lou “The Toe” Groza, the first great kicker in pro football history and the man for whom the award given out to college football’s best kicker very year, is named. He’s also the man for whom the road on which Browns Headquarters in Berea is located, is named.
So to say that Dawson is better than Groza – and also better than the other men in the Browns’ great lineage of kickers, Don Cockroft, Matt Bahr and Mat Stover – is no small statement. But it’s true. It is oh, so true.
But Dawson has so much respect for Groza – and those other great kickers – that he is embarrassed to have his name mentioned in the same sentence. He feels he isn’t worthy.
As good as Dawson was on the field, he was even better off it. He was a great locker-room influence. His work ethic and the way he approached his job with such diligence, was a tutorial for how young players should theirs.
More on Dawson in my next post.
