The Phil Dawson curse

The Phil Dawson Curse began when he was kicked to the curb

Call it the Phil Dawson Curse.

Don’t laugh.

The Browns have had place-kicking problems since The Self-Proclamied Genius, former Browns President Joe Banner, left Dawson walk away in free agency after the 2012 season without even entering into any contract negotiations, ending a 14-year career during which he rivaled the incomparable Lou Groza for the best kicker in team history.

Yes, Li’l Joe had a better idea.

But I have a better idea still. Keep Banner — and all those knuckleheads like him — away all NFL teams, less they ruin their kicking situations, too.

Advertisement: County Sporting Goods

The Browns are on their second kicker this season in Chase McLaughlin, and he has been struggling mightily and could well be gone by the time you read this after missing a 47-yard try in Monday evening’s 16-14 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders.

The original Browns had a string of iconic kickers, all right in a row, with a year in between at times, beginning first with Groza, followed by, in order, Don Cockroft, Matt Barr and Matt Stover.

Then the expansion-era Browns came in and got almost everything wrong, except for the kicker in Dawson. When the rest of team was messing up year after year, only Dawson and later Pro Football Hall of Fame left tackle Joe Thomas and returner Josh Cribbs were making headlines.

But that wasn’t good enough for Banner. While he kept Thomas and Cribbs, he got rid of Dawson and, as mentioned, the Browns have never found a suitable replacement — or anyone even remotely close to it — since then.

The Phil Dawson curse had begun.

Ugh.

This is what I don’t get as well. This current management team, with General Manager Andrew Berry, has put together a much more talented roster than any Browns GM of the new era. Yet even Berry and his guys can’t get the kicker thing figured out.

It’s just another frustrating thing in this frustrating season.