Berea, Ohio ? Carrying his 6-year-old son, Phil Dawson stepped inside Cleveland’s locker room following an emotional overtime win Sunday in Baltimore expecting to see teammates showered, dressed and heading for the bus.

Instead, the Browns were waiting for someone special – him.

“Next to having my son there,” Dawson said Wednesday, “that was probably the highlight of my career.”

Dawson, the fourth-most accurate kicker in NFL history, had been delayed in joining the Browns, and with good reason.

After kicking the winning field goal in Cleveland’s 33-30 win, and bouncing a controversial, never-to-be-forgotten 51-yarder through to end regulation, Dawson spent extra time on the field doing TV interviews.

He was soon joined by his oldest son, Dru, who had never seen daddy play in person and picked the road game against the Ravens as his first. Turns out, the youngster couldn’t have chosen a better one.

So when Dawson got to the locker room he figured the Browns had already completed their team prayer, coach Romeo Crennel had given his postgame speech and handed out game balls to the day’s stars.

“But everyone was standing there waiting,” Dawson said. “We’ve been talking all year that we’re a team, and I think that’s another obvious example of how we’re all together in this thing. That means a great deal.”

For much of the past nine years, Dawson stood alone for the Browns.

The likable Dawson, who was born in Florida but whose Texas drawl is heard loudest when he drops the occasional “y’all” into conversation, is the lone player left from Cleveland’s 1999 expansion team. That laughingly overmatched squad of no-names went 2-14 and ranks among the worst in league history.

Since then, Dawson has seen over 100 players come and go. He’s endured coaching changes and front office overhauls. And, he’s witnessed bizarre games – Cleveland’s bottle-throwing riot and linebacker Dwayne Rudd’s infamous helmet toss among them – that more often than not ended with the Browns on the wrong end of the final score.