Background and career
Philip Drury Dawson (born January 23, 1975) is an American former professional football player who was a placekicker in the National Football League (NFL) for 20 years. Before that he was an All-American college football player for the Texas Longhorns. He signed with the Oakland Raiders as an undrafted free agent in 1998 and spent a season on the Patriots practice squad. He played most of his career with the Cleveland Browns from 1999 to 2012 where he was a Pro Bowler, and has the record for most field goals made for the franchise, passing Hall of Famer Lou Groza in 2010. He also played for the San Francisco 49ers and Arizona Cardinals.
Dawson was born in West Palm Beach, Florida, but later moved to Dallas, Texas. He started kicking in middle school when he was one of few players with soccer experience. He attended Lake Highlands High School in Dallas, Texas from 1989 to 1993 and was a letterman in football. As a senior, Dawson was a starter at both kicker and offensive tackle until hurting his knee in a preseason scrimmage. Dawson thought that he might have had to have season-ending surgery, but he gutted it out, stuck to kicking, and was named as an All-American and the Southwest Region Offensive Player of the Year by SuperPrep. In a 1992 playoff game at Texas Stadium against Nacogdoches High School, he kicked a 52-yard field goal as time expired to beat Nacogdoches 31–28 and Lake Highlands went as far as the Regional quarterfinals where they lost to Temple.
Dawson attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he was a four-year letterman in football from 1994 to 1997 and earned a B.A. in political science. After redshirting his freshman year, Dawson scored 80 points and went a perfect 38 for 38 on extra points, the 2nd most in a single season without missing in school history at the time, in the 1994 season. He continued his streak into his sophomore year and tied a school record with 54 consecutive extra points made. He also had 14 consecutive made field goals, the 2nd most for a freshman in school history. Early in the season, he kicked his first of 9 career 50+ yard field goals with a 50 yarder against Pittsburgh. He was named first team All-Southwest Conference, led the conference in field goal accuracy and helped the Longhorns win a share of the Southwest Conference Championship and then win the 1994 Sun Bowl. He set the freshman school record for points scored in a season (80) and finished 3rd for accuracy (73.7%) by a freshman. Going into the 1995 season, he was named to the Playboy Magazine Preseason All-American team. As a sophomore, Dawson led the Longhorns in scoring, helping them to win the Southwest Conference Championship outright and go to the Sugar Bowl. In the Sugar Bowl, he kicked a notable game-winning field goal against the University of Virginia, booting a 50-yarder against a 30-MPH wind to give Texas a dramatic 17–16 victory as time expired. It was the 2nd longest field goal in a bowl game in school history and the team's first ever walk-off field goal victory. That season he led the Southwest Conference in extra points attempts and extra points made. Though he only played in the Southwest Conference for two years, he is 19th all time for extra point attempts and 17th for extra points made. In the offseason, he had a knee operation. In his junior year, Dawson scored 108 points, the second most in a season, and the most ever by a placekicker, in school history at the time. Against Oklahoma State, he scored 17 points setting a school record that would last until 2023. He made first team All-Big 12 and he helped Texas win the first Big 12 Championship game, make a trip to the Fiesta Bowl and finish ranked 23rd. He led the Big 12 in field goals and kick scoring per game (9 ppg). He led the team in scoring for the 3rd consecutive year and at the Fiesta Bowl he tied the school record for field goals in a bowl game (3). He was named a 2nd Team All-American by the Newspaper Enterprise Association and a Lou Groza Award semi-finalist. He led the Big 12 in extra point and field goal attempts; in extra points and field goals made adn in kicking points. In 1997, his senior year, he was a team captain but suffered a series of injuries to his hamstring, pelvis, groin and hip. Against Rutgers he kicked a college career long 54 yard field goal, one of two 50-yard or longer field goals he had that day and part of a streak of six straight 50-yard+ field goals without a miss - a school record at the time. At the end of the season he was named second-team All-Big 12 and first-team Academic All-Big 12. After his final year at Texas, he played in the 1998 Senior Bowl. He finished his time at Texas holding 13 school records, including career scoring, with 339 career points, a record that would be broken by Ricky Williams five games into the next season. It wouldn't be topped by another place kicker until 2004. He also held the record for career field goal attempts (79), field goals made (59), consecutive field goals made (15) and field goal accuracy (74.7%) and most of the records would last over 20 years. He was also 2nd for 50+ yard field goals made (9). He finished his college career ranked 16th on the NCAA all-time scoring list. He was also 12th in kick scoring and 31st in FGMs. In 2012 he was entered into the Longhorn Hall of Honor.
Though considered a potential late round pick, Dawson went undrafted in the 1998 NFL draft. He was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Oakland Raiders five days after the draft and waived by them after their second preseason game in August. He logged a missed 47-yard field goal attempt and a made extra point for the Raiders (both occurring against the Dallas Cowboys).
He was picked up by the New England Patriots, to fill in for an injured Adam Vinatieri, two days after being cut by the Raiders. A few days later he kicked the winning field goal in a preseason game against the Redskins. He played for them in their final preseason game kicking a 27-yard FG and 3 extra points and was then waived the next day. He was immediately signed to the practice squad, out of concern for Vinatieri's health, but never appeared in a game for them.
The Cleveland Browns signed Dawson as a free agent in March 1999, and he remained with the team for 14 years until he joined the San Francisco 49ers in 2013. It's tied for the 2nd longest consecutive tenure in Browns history. He scored the first points in the history of the "new" Cleveland Browns in 1999. On October 10 of that year, he scored the only touchdown of his career on a fake field goal against the Bengals in an 18–17 loss that was also the first rushing touchdown scored by a Brown at Cleveland Browns Stadium. That season he also kicked the first of his walk-off game winning field goals against Pittsburgh to win the game 16-15.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
