Background and career
Sebastian Paweł Janikowski (Polish pronunciation: [sɛˈbastjan jaɲiˈkɔfskʲi]; born March 2, 1978) is a Polish former professional American football placekicker who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 19 seasons, primarily with the Oakland Raiders. He played college football for the Florida State Seminoles and was selected 17th overall in the 2000 NFL draft by the Raiders. During his final season, Janikowski played for the Seattle Seahawks. Janikowski is one of only five NFL kickers to be selected in the first round of an NFL draft and the most recent to be. He is the Raiders' all-time leading scorer and appeared in more games with the franchise than any other player. He was named to the Pro Bowl and All-Pro second team in 2011. He also tied the then-NFL record for the longest successful field goal at 63 yards.
Sebastian Janikowski was born on March 2, 1978, as an only child to Henryk and Halina Janikowski in Wałbrzych, Poland. His father was a professional soccer player and moved to the United States in the early 1980s in the hopes of reviving his career. Years after Henryk emigrated from Poland, his parents divorced, and Henryk married an American citizen. Left at home with just his mother, Janikowski began to excel at soccer himself, and Janikowski earned a spot on the Polish under-17 team at age 15. His father's marriage to an American meant that Janikowski could legally emigrate to the United States. He spoke very little English, but learned quickly by taking a three-week night class and by watching television. Janikowski played in only five games for the Orangewood Christian soccer team, but led them to the Class A State Championship game by scoring 15 goals, where they lost to Lakeland Christian on penalty kicks (3–2). Then living in Orlando, Florida with his father and stepmother, Janikowski joined the Orlando Lions, an under-19 soccer club coached by Angelo Rossi. Rossi was also the soccer coach at Seabreeze High School in Daytona Beach, and convinced Henryk that his son would be better off there. Henryk agreed, but was unwilling to move, so Janikowski moved in with Rossi's family. As a senior at Seabreeze, Janikowski played both soccer and football after being recruited by the school's football coach. As the team's placekicker, he quickly earned a reputation by kicking four field goals of 50+ yards. One of them was for 60 yards, third-best in Florida high school history. During a practice at Seabreeze High, Janikowski kicked an 82-yard field goal. USA Today named him to its 1996 All-American team. After being heavily recruited by some of the top collegiate football programs, Janikowski decided on Florida State University.
Janikowski attended Florida State University, where he played for coach Bobby Bowden's Florida State Seminoles football team. Bowden later said, "Boy, have you ever thought about how many national championships we might have won if we had Janikowski every year of my career?" In three seasons, Janikowski amassed a career scoring total of 324 points (3rd all-time for the school). In 1999, he won the Lou Groza Award for a second consecutive year, an honor given annually to the nation's top collegiate kicker. Janikowski is currently the only player to win this award two years consecutively. He became popular with fans for being able to placekick a kick-off through the endzone uprights, having done it so often that the stadium monitors would display field goal graphics even though it was a kick-off and not an actual field goal attempt. Janikowski was first called "Seabass" while playing for FSU. Janikowski's career at FSU was not without incident. In August 1998, he got into a fight outside of a Tallahassee bar and was charged with failure to leave the premises; Janikowski pled no contest to the misdemeanor offense. That same year, the night after a season-ending win over rival Florida, Janikowski got into a fight at a local bar and was charged with battery. In the 1999 season, FSU was again in contention for a national title. Prior to the team's appearance in the national championship game (the 2000 Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, Louisiana), Janikowski declared his intentions to declare himself eligible for the 2000 NFL draft, saying that his primary reason for foregoing his senior year was to pay for his mother to come to the United States. In his final game for FSU, Janikowski converted 5-of-5 PATs and kicked a 32-yard field goal, helping the Seminoles win their second national championship. Although Janikowski's skill as a kicker was unquestioned by NFL scouts, his off-the-field behavior was a cause of concern. In January 2000, Janikowski was partying with a group of friends when his high school friend was arrested at a nightclub. Janikowski, who later said that he was thinking he could save everyone paperwork and the trouble, approached the arresting officer and asked how much it would take to let his friend go. He was then arrested for attempting to bribe an officer, a charge that carried a $5,000 fine, up to five years in prison, and possible deportation. Janikowski claimed that he thought he could pay a fine to have his friend released, but the officer interpreted the action as an attempted bribe.
Janikowski was selected by the Oakland Raiders in the first round (17th overall) of the 2000 NFL draft. In a retrospective about his selection years later, it was said that team owner Al Davis, frustrated at the middling success at the kicker position (the previous season saw them make just one field goal from 50 yards out), wanted to see if he could find a kicker to solve the problem swiftly. While team coach Jon Gruden was stated to have preferred Sylvester Morris or perhaps Shaun Alexander, he went with Davis on the pick for Janikowski, the first pure placekicker to be selected in the first round in the modern era.
Shortly after the draft, Janikowski was acquitted of his bribery charge. He had testified on his own behalf, stating that he was simply trying to pay his friend's fine (as opposed to bribing the arresting officer). Just eight days after his acquittal, Janikowski and two friends were arrested in Tallahassee on suspicion of felony possession of the drug GHB. Once again, he faced prison time or deportation if convicted, but was acquitted of all charges in April 2001. Janikowski's professional career got off to a rough start: in 2000, only 68.8% of his field goal attempts were successful. Despite the struggles, Janikowski converted all 46 extra point attempts as a rookie.
In the 2001 season, Janikowski made 82.1% of his field goal attempts.
