Phil Dawson on Sunday might be playing final game with Browns

[BernietheKid]

Phil Dawson on Sunday might be playing final game with Browns
Published: Wednesday, December 29, 2010, 8:31 PM Updated: Wednesday, December 29, 2010, 8:38 PM

By Tony Grossi, The Plain Dealer

Phil Dawson senses that Sunday's game against the Pittsburgh Steelers will be his last as the Browns' kicker.

He will be 36 on Jan. 23, but he's far from retiring.

"They're going to have to kick me out the door," Dawson said of eventually hanging up his cleats.

John Kuntz / The Plain Dealer
Browns kicker Phil Dawson after booting a field goal as time expired to beat the Steelers in Pittsburgh on Nov. 14, 1999.



But that's kind of what the Browns are doing to the only full-time kicker they have employed since 1999.

Dawson's contract ends after this season. The Browns have made no meaningful attempt to re-sign him. When a player of Dawson's stature finishes a season unsigned, he is as good as gone in free agency. The Browns know that.

Dawson likes to say that every game has a unique challenge. For a man with an .831 field-goal percentage playing half his games in one of the NFL's toughest venues for a kicker, Sunday's challenge won't be the unpredictable winds or the cold and heavy ball or the unsettled ground conditions made more inconsistent by four re-soddings since September.

It will be the unavoidable realization that he is kicking for the last time wearing a Browns uniform.

"It doesn't change my job responsibility," Dawson said. "I have a job to do. I signed my name on the dotted line. Until that's no longer the case, I'm going to continue doing my job. The challenge this week is to embrace the rivalry and block out whatever distractions there may be and, in this case, possibly being my last game [with the Browns]."

If this is Dawson's last hurrah in Cleveland, it's appropriate that it comes in a Steelers game.

Of the hundreds of players and coaches who have marched through here since 1999, none had a greater appreciation for the Browns-Steelers rivalry than Dawson.

Yes, the Steelers have won 20 of 24 meetings, including one playoff game, since 1999. And though there are many in Pittsburgh who will claim such an imbalance diminishes a natural, geographic rivalry that goes back to 1950, Dawson doesn't buy it.

"It doesn't matter what they think. It matters what we think," he said. "It's a special game to me and I know it's a special game to the fans of Cleveland."

Dawson was quick to pick up on the magnitude of the Steelers game in the expansion season of 1999 after camp broke and first-year coach Chris Palmer turned to the rookie kicker and said, almost apologetically, "Well, we're starting with you."

The Steelers marched in for that inaugural game behind Bill Cowher's exhortations and bashed the party with a 43-0 humiliation. It made the rematch nine weeks later in Pittsburgh sweet. As Cowher stood helplessly on the sideline in Three Rivers Stadium, Dawson coolly booted the game-winner as the clock ran out for a 16-15 win.

"In fact, I watched it the other day," Dawson said. "That was my first taste about what this game is all about."

Dawson's lessons extended beyond the rivalry. Dawson was expecting Palmer to call timeout, so he moved to get in a few practice kicks into a net on the sideline. But Palmer froze on calling time. With the clock ticking, special teamer Earl Little raced to Dawson and told him to run onto the field. Somehow they got off the kick just as the clock struck :00. After the two players related the story, Palmer chewed out each the next day.

So when coaches called for an ill-advised onside kick to open the second half against Baltimore last Sunday, Dawson knew the drill when it failed.

"That was a great call, just poor execution on my part," he again insisted Wednesday.
By his own count, Dawson has converted about 50 percent of his onside kicks with the Browns. So the odds weren't great of a ball with two pointed ends doing the right thing. And even if the Browns recover at their 40, would that have assured any points against the Ravens?

Dawson just s. This is no time for him to belabor the franchise's failings for a whole generation that have made every field goal attempt -- heck, every kickoff -- scrutinized as life-or-death. In Mike Holmgren's days in San Francisco, kickers were as dispensable as practice balls. Here, Dawson's impact is both a blessing to him and a curse.

The offense was ranked better than 23rd only one time. It was eighth in 2007. That year, Dawson had his finest season, making 26-of-30 field goals, 42-of-43 extra points and scoring a career-high 120 points.

That's the year in which he kicked the disputed field goal off the camera support in Baltimore, spoiling the Ravens' celebration in their locker room. He later made field goals of 35 and 49 yards to beat Buffalo, 8-0, in a 40-mph blizzard in Cleveland Browns Stadium.

Neither game is his personal highlight.

"It was the kick in Buffalo on 'Monday Night Football' [in 2008]," Dawson said.

"I was pretty upset about not making the Pro Bowl the year before and everyone told me, 'Just make the most of the prime-time games the next year.' That was kind of my mentality going into the ['08] season. So being able to make a kick like that on 'Monday Night Football,' in 30-degree weather, career long [56 yards], the whole ordeal, that was pretty fun."

Dawson said he's not bitter or upset about his career in Cleveland seemingly coming to an end.

"I'm just appreciative to be able to play for the Cleveland Browns," he said. "I'm not emotional but I am sentimental. I'll soak it all in."
If he could write the script, he falls short of asking for one last game-winning try.

"I just want to walk off the field, last game of the 2010 season, with a win," he said.

That has only happened five times in his previous 11 seasons.

Cleveland Browns' Phil Dawson on Sunday might be playing final game with Browns | cleveland.com

[nickers]

Bye Bye Phil...thanks for your years of service and for being a class act even though I had doubts about you...you did it all the right way....and wherever you may wind up as long as its not pisspuke..Baltiwhore or Denver...I wish you well.

[OzDawg]

always liked Phil ...but
wish we could have given you a ring mate good luck wherever .

[Jax Dawg]

Originally Posted by nickers

Bye Bye Phil...thanks for your years of service and for being a class act even though I had doubts about you...you did it all the right way....and wherever you may wind up as long as its not pisspuke..Baltiwhore or Denver...I wish you well.

Agree 100%. Seems kind of silly to get rid of a great bad weather kicker because his kickoffs don't go 5 yards deep in the end zone anymore. Most kickers these days get cut once or twice before they find their groove, I hope the Browns don't regret not resigning Phil next year but something tells me we will.

[Enigmatic Evil]

Of course we will!

Phil Dawson is the only remaining Brown from the expansion Draft, dare I say he's given us great stability at an important position and this whole 'saga' has been downright frustrating. I'm not saying a Kicker should be our top priority, far from it. But I think a lot of this also has to do with the uncertainty of a 2011 football season. I would love to see Dawson remain in a Brown and Orange uniform but all signs seem to point to that not happening.

[hiwaygal]

Is it possible that the FO has decided not to negotiate anything until the CBA business is decided?

[Vegasdogg]

Problem is Cleveland doesn't think he is worth what the agent is asking, and the agent knows the market will pay Phil once the CBA is worked out. This is not a 'normal' off-season for FA's. Just wait until the Roth, Vickers, Jackson, et al stories start pumping through.

[Riffer X]

I can see it now, the Browns finally turn the corner and then lose a bunch of winnable games because they have a Nick Folk type kicking for them.

Just effing sign the guy already. They (Phillip) went out and way overpaid for a punter not even as good as Hodges has been, yet will let a few dollars dictate keeping a guy still in his prime who has bled brown and orange. I hate this kind of stuff.

[Legendary]

Let hope a legendary last kick from Phil Dawson which will stop the Steelers from winning the Division
Good Luck Phil.

[Vegasdogg]

Originally Posted by Riffer X

Just effing sign the guy already

Agreed, but I don't know if anyone is signing right now.

[Jax Dawg]

Originally Posted by hiwaygal

Is it possible that the FO has decided not to negotiate anything until the CBA business is decided?

I thought that too but then they resigned our leading rusher from the New Orleans game - Hodges to a contract extension.

Most teams aren't making any effort at all to sign any pending FA's until a new CBA is signed, will make for an interesting free agency period once it starts (pending a new CBA).

[dogpaddle]

Phil has been the only guy with this team since the day they came back. The good part is he has been a nice asset to the team the entire time and not a crappy player or one with a bad attitude.

If this is the end for him, I consider that sad. That said, I know it's a business and extremely likely that he's a goner.

Good luck Phil.