College Career
Janikowski attended Florida State University, where he played for coach Bobby Bowden's Florida State Seminoles football team. In three seasons, he amassed a career scoring total of 324 points (3rd all-time for the school). In 1999 he became the first kicker to win the Lou Groza Award twice, an honor given annually to the nation's top collegiate kicker. He became popular with fans for being able to kick a placekick kick-off through the endzone uprights, having done it so often that the stadium monitors would display the Field Goal graphics even though it was a kick-off and not an actual Field Goal attempt.
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 pleaded 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.
Read more about this topic: Sebastian Janikowski
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