Four days after it was widely reported, the Detroit Lions announced late on Tuesday that they have signed veteran kicker David Akers.

  We all knew it, Jason Hanson knew it too.

  Hanson announced his retirement on Thursday and a day later Akers was on board (at least unofficially).

  Hanson gave Akers a vote of confidence at his retirement press conference on Tuesday when he was talking about making his decision to retire.

 “I also wanted to unretire when we signed David Akers. I said, ‘No, not David Akers,’ because David is good. He had a bad year last year, but I don’t feel bad for him and I’m not real worried about him because he’s good. That happens to kickers,’’ Hanson said.

  The 38-year-old Akers had a 69-percent field goal percentage in 2012, 20 percentage points lower than Hanson.

 “So, the Lions are fortunate that he’ll be here. Can I say he’s going to do my job? It’s his job. He’ll do well and I think I’m really jealous of him because I think he’s going to step into a good situation and he’s going to do some good stuff. So, yeah, that was like 84-percent joking there,’’ Hanson added.

 (Jason Hanson is Chapter 11 — Old, Bald and Still Kicking — in Paula Pasche’s book,  “100 Things Lions Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die’’ here. It’s also available at bookstores.)