Phil Dawson announces retirement

Before the Robbie Gould contract extension, it wasn’t a bad thought to think the San Francisco 49ers may look at bringing back Phil Dawson to help kicking duties. It’s good the Gould extension worked out because Dawson announced his retirement on Thursday. Dawson will retire as a Cleveland Brown.

Dawson will best be remembered as one of the shining moments of some bad Cleveland Browns teams, but the 49ers also got Dawson to give the placekicking unit a shot in the arm. Before Dawson, the 49ers were using David Akers, who was phenomenal to start 2011 and depressing as time went on, costing the 49ers multiple games with what should be chip-shot field goals in the 2012 season. Goals Akers could…