Sebastian Janikowski

Early years

Sebastian Janikowski was born on March 2, 1978 as an only child to Henryk and Halina Janikowski in Wałbrzych, Poland. His dad was a professional soccer player, and moved to the United States in the early 1980s in the hopes of reviving his career. Years after Janikowski's father 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 when he was 15, Janikowski earned a spot on the Polish under-17 team.

His father's marriage to an American meant 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 in 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.

During his senior year 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 prep school history. During a practice at Seabreeze High, he kicked an 82-yard field goal. USA Today named Janikowski to its 1996 All-American team. After being heavily recruited by some of the top collegiate football programs, Janikowski decided on Florida State University.

College career

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 (I have!) how many national championships we might have won if we had Janikowski every year of my career?" In three seasons, he amassed a career scoring total of 324 points (3rd all-time for the school). In 1999, he won the Lou Groza Award for the second year in a row, an honor given annually to the nation's top collegiate kicker. Janikowski is currently the only player to honor this award two years in a row. 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. Wide receiver Peter Warrick began calling him Seabass since he said the name Sebastian was too long.

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; he 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 Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, Louisiana), Janikowski declared his intentions to declare himself eligible for the 2000 NFL Draft, saying his primary reason for foregoing his senior year was to pay for his mother to come to the United States.

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 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.

Oakland Raiders

Janikowski was drafted by the Oakland Raiders with the 17th overall pick in the 2000 NFL Draft. He was the fourth placekicker in NFL history to be taken in the first round of the draft.

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. His accuracy improved dramatically in 2001, when 82.1% of his attempts were successful.

Janikowski reached Super Bowl XXXVII with the Raiders in 2002, and kicked an early field goal in the first quarter. His kick briefly gave the Raiders a 3–0 lead over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This would be the Raiders' only lead of the game; they lost 48–21. As of 2016, Janikowski is the only remaining member of the Raiders to have also played on the team's 2002 Super Bowl roster. On September 9, 2017, he was placed on injured reserve and Giorgio Tavecchio was signed on from the practice squad to temporarily take his place as kicker.

Records and attempts

On November 4, 2007, Janikowski attempted to kick a 64-yard record field goal before halftime against the Houston Texans on a windless Oakland afternoon in McAfee Coliseum. If successful, the kick would have broken the all-time NFL field goal record of 63 yards. However, it bounced off the right upright and came back out.

On September 28, Janikowski unsuccessfully attempted a 76-yard field goal against the San Diego Chargers into the heavy wind right before halftime. This is presumed to be the longest attempt in NFL history; though the league keeps no such records on attempts, the longest known attempts previous to this were 74 yard attempts by Mark Moseley and Joe Danelo in 1979.

On October 19, 2008, Janikowski broke his own Raiders team record, making a 57-yard field goal in overtime to defeat the New York Jets, 16–13, the longest overtime field goal in NFL history. On December 27, 2009, he again broke his own team record by kicking a 61-yard field goal against the Cleveland Browns before halftime. On December 26, 2010, Janikowski converted a 59-yard field goal in the second quarter of a home game against the Indianapolis Colts making him the second player with two 59+ yard field goals (Morten Andersen). On January 3, 2010, Janikowski reached his 1,000th career point with a 39-yard field goal against the Baltimore Ravens. He is the highest scoring player in Raiders history.

On September 12, 2011, as a rainy first half against the Denver Broncos came to a close, Janikowski made a 63-yard field goal and tied the NFL record set by Tom Dempsey in 1970 and previously tied by Jason Elam (1998) and afterwards by David Akers (2012), but which has subsequently been broken by Matt Prater of the Denver Broncos. On November 27, 2011, in a game against the Chicago Bears, Janikowski made field goals of 40, 47, 42, 19, 37, and 44 yards to break the team record of most field goals in a single game he shared with Jeff Jaeger. Janikowski attempted a record breaking 65-yard field goal on December 18, 2011, against the Detroit Lions, but Ndamukong Suh blocked it to end the game.

Three contract extensions

After the 2004 season, Janikowski was given a five-year contract extension reportedly worth $10.5 million. This made him (at the time) the highest paid kicker in NFL history. In February 2010, Janikowski extended his contract with the Raiders for $16 million over the next four years, including $9 million in guaranteed money, making him the highest paid placekicker in NFL history. On August 2, 2013, Janikowski signed a four-year contract extension with the Raiders for $19 million over five years, including $8 million guaranteed.

On September 9, 2017, the Raiders placed Janikowski on injured reserve due to back issues.

Accuracy

In addition to being historically powerful, Janikowski has shown accuracy throughout his career, with his best year in terms of field goal percentage being 91.2 percent (31 of 34) in 2012 and his next best 89.7 percent (26 of 29) in 2009. His highest number of field goals in a season was 33 (out of 41) in 2010, when he was named after the regular season as an alternate in the 2011 Pro Bowl behind Billy Cundiff. His next highest was 31 (in 2011 and 2012). He is currently ranked 39th all-time in field goal accuracy at 80.21%, behind the leader Justin Tucker, at 89.84%. Janikowski was named the starting kicker for the 2012 AFC Pro Bowl team on December 27, 2011. In that game, he hit a Pro Bowl record eight extra points and a field goal in the 59–41 AFC victory.

NFL records

Longest field goal of his career: 63 yards