The former Oakland Raiders and Seattle Seahawks kicker Sebastian Janikowski is retiring from professional football. Janikowski, who played 19 seasons in NFL, confirmed his decision in a chat with ESPN‘s Adam Schefter.
“It was a good run. I still think of the Super Bowl — it still hurts,” – Janikowski told Schefter. The 41-year-old is referring to 48-21 loss Raiders suffered in a Super Bowl XXXVII clash against Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
According to Janikowski, the decision to retire was influenced by the fact that he thinks his body “couldn’t take the rigors of kicking” in the league anymore.
Sebastian Janikowski was taken 17th overall by Raiders in the 2000 NFL Draft, which marked only the third time that a kicker was selected in the first round of the draft. During his 18 years with the Raiders, he earned one Pro Bowl selection and earned one Second-Team All-Pro selection.
After Janikowski spent the 2017 season dealing with injuries, Raiders decided not to offer him a new contract. He signed with the Seahawks, and played in all 16 games in 2018, going 22-of-27 on field goal and 48-of-51 on extra points.
Janikowski’s career highlights include 80.4 percent field goal conversion and 1,913 scored points which rank 10th in NFL history.
