Oakland Kicker Janikowski Disputes Story of Arrest Incident ("Just Dining with Girlfriend")

DENVER -- It was just a date gone awry. At least that's Sebastian Janikowski's version of another sordid off-field story involving the Raiders kicker.

Janikowski told Oakland team officials Monday that he was simply dining with his girlfriend Saturday night when he was arrested for his alleged involvement in an alcohol-fueled bar fight.

The team allowed Janikowski to play Monday night against the Denver Broncos after Janikowski told team officials his side of the story.

"We got his story, what he feels occurred," Raiders senior assistant Bruce Allen told the San Francisco Chronicle, "and we felt it would have been inappropriate to come to a judgment without giving him the opportunity to play.

Janikowski, 25, was arrested Saturday night in Walnut Creek, Calif., on suspicion of misdemeanor assault, misdemeanor vandalism and being drunk in public.

Jimmy Tang, owner of Slates Supper Club, where the incident allegedly took place, told the Chronicle that he saw what happened and was surprised that Janikowski was arrested.

According to Tang, Janikowski wrestled briefly with a restaurant security guard after being taunted by two men. Tang also told the newspaper that Janikowski accidentally broke off a side mirror of a car belonging to one of the two men during the scuffle.

"From the stories that I've been hearing, you never hear of one guy picking a fight with three [guys]," Allen said. "That doesn't make a lot of sense, all right?"

Allen would not comment specifically on any team-related discipline for Janikowski that may be forthcoming.

"We'll deal with it in the appropriate manner once we have all the facts," Allen told the Chronicle. "Today we don't have them; I don't know if we're going to have them next week. [Janikowski] is allowed due process, because he does feel that he's innocent.

"[If he was intoxicated], that would absolutely concern me ... We understand that any one of our players, not just Sebastian, has a duty in the community as far as how they're going to behave. And we've explained to everyone, as every player in the league knows -- it's not just the Raiders -- that they're going to be the target of extra scrutiny.''

Outside of possible team sanctions, Janikowski could face disciplinary action from the NFL under its personal conduct and/or substance abuse policies. A league source told the Chronicle that any league action would be dependent upon charges being filed, not on his arrest.

The incident is one of several of Janikowski's scrapes with the law, dating back to his college days at Florida State University.

The stocky kicker, an All-America kicker as a Seminole, was charged with drunken driving in October 2002, when tests showed he had a 0.20 blood alcohol level -- more than twice the legal limit in California.

Janikowski pleaded guilty last Dec. 24 to a misdemeanor charge of drunken driving, drawing a $1,292 fine and three years' probation.

In 2001, Janikowski was acquitted on charges of possession of the "date rape drug" GHB and evidence tampering. He was facing up to five years in prison and possible deportation to his native Poland if found guilty.

In 2000, Janikowski was acquitted on charges of trying to bribe a Tallahassee, Fla., police officer to release his roommate from custody after a bar argument with a bouncer.

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ESPN.com: Page 2

Tuesday, September 23, 2003
The secret sounds of 'Sea Bass'

By Graham Hays
Page 2 staff

Is there anything better than listening to the exchanges when NFL Films or ESPN sticks a microphone on a player during a game? The taunting, cajoling, grunting and whining makes us feel like we're right there on the field -- inside the mind of an NFL player. But here at Page 2, we knew it was going to take a little something extra to get inside the confused mind of Oakland's Sebastian Janikowski. And besides, nobody talks to kickers -- especially kickers with charges pending.

But thanks to some special technology, we managed to wire Janikowski's inner voice -- we had some competition from local law enforcement -- for the Raiders' Monday Night Football game against the Broncos. And while we forgot that Janikowski's inner monologue would be in Polish, a quick sweep of the local restaurant scene uncovered a helpful waitress/translator from Gdansk. Here are some of the highlights from Monday's game.

'It's easy when you're just aiming for a couple of bars.'
Game Situation: Raiders win coin toss and elect to receive
"Whew, that's a lucky break. No way I could kick off right now. These 7 p.m. local starts are rough, but what am I going to do? Happy hour is happy hour."

Game Situation: Broncos take 7-0 lead
"Man, I wish Jason Elam hadn't signed that five-year extension in February. I'd sign on here in a heartbeat and be kicking 65-yard field goals for the next decade. Not to mention those studies on what altitude does to the metabolization of Gamma Hydroxy Butyrate in the blood. Talk about living the high life."

Game Situation: Broncos take 14-0 lead
"All right, no problem, we're still in this game. It's like when you're out drinking on a Saturday night and the bouncers throw you out of a place for smashing a few tables and asking the owner's wife if there's a "champagne" room. We can't just sit on the curb, moping around and waiting for the police to come and see if anyone wants to file charges. We've got to pick ourselves up, stumble blindly down an alley, take a whiz on the garbage, shout some obscenities at people while tearing mirrors off cars, and then move on to the next bar. Crap, there goes my train of thought -- what was I thinking about?"

Game Situation: Still first quarter, and Broncos take 21-0 lead
"So anyway, I wonder what's up with Gen. Wesley Clark entering the presidential race? I mean, his background obviously plays well with foreign policy and ought to make him a favorite of the conservative wing of the Democratic party, and that's going to hurt John Kerry. But it's not like NATO's policy while he was in command was exactly a bulwark of effective post-Cold War social doctrine. I mean, if he had just taken the time to read some of the source material on the Balkan resistance, he probably could have liquidated Slobodon Milosevic without nearly the cost. Can he really hold up to the media scrutiny when they start asking questions about his ... hey, is that cheerleader looking at me? I know she's not looking at Shane Lechler. She is looking at me -- I wonder if she'd like a spiked Gatorade."

Game Situation: Mike Anderson replaces an injured Clinton Portis
"How is Shanahan going to explain this one? Portis needed a bathroom break? Emergency jury duty? The Broncos are in so tight with the league, Shanahan gets away with anything. I can't believe they didn't at least fine him for that whole Plummer thing. Really, what's the moral difference between lying about a guy's injured shoulder and bribing a police officer to get your buddy out of a patrol car? At least I wasn't being self-serving. After all, it's not like I was the one under arrest -- that time. And you'd better believe Tagliabue would have been all over me if I had been sober enough on Saturday night to try and bribe anyone."

Game Situation: Broncos take 24-0 lead late in second quarter
"It's never good when we're down by a bigger number than I can blow on the breathalyzer. At this rate, fans are going to start lobbying Al to bring back Joe Bugel and Jeff George. Coach is going to be pissed at halftime. I wonder if I should go chill in the training room with Romo while he 'rejuvenates' for the second half."

Game Situation: Janikowski's second-half kickoff goes for a touchback
"I'll never forget the advice John Daly gave me at that celebrity golf tournament. It turned my career around. 'Sea Bass,' he said, 'just hit the one in the middle.' Works every time."

Game Situation: Raiders score to make it 31-7 in the third quarter
"How do people up here live with this dry air? It's murder on my pores. And those bastards at the police station ciaphed my loofah. You just don't ciaph a bald man's loofah -- this is going to qualify as an exfoliation crisis. And between the hangover and our early flight, I'm not going to have time to get to Bath and Body Works until we're back in Oakland. Maybe I should just skip going out tonight and take a bubble bath."

Game Situation: Janikowski kicks 41-yard field goal to make it 31-10
"Clearly, I'm not the problem here. If the team would just follow my lead more often -- or at least bail me out a little more quickly -- we'd get this mess turned around. Maybe it would help if I started celebrating like a Gramatica -- seemed to work for Tampa Bay in the Super Bowl last year."

Game Situation: Jake Plummer runs out the clock
"Tough loss, tough loss. Let's see, it's 10:30 now, and last call in Denver is 1:30 -- figure an hour to get through the post-game and another 15 minutes to get to the bar. Looks like it's shots tonight."

Graham Hays writes "Out of the Box," the inside scoop on yesterday's box scores for ESPN Fantasy Games.

[...] "Friends said Monday that he had been very upbeat, entertaining his parents at his East Bay home for several weeks before their return to Poland shortly before the start of the regular season." [...]

?

Janikowski's troubles
July 1998: Ordered by police to leave the Louvre, a Tallahassee, Fla., nightclub, and never return.
August 1998: Cited for a misdemeanor after returning to the Louvre. Pleads no contest, and case is not adjudicated. Ordered to write letters of apology to two Tallahassee police officers and pay $295 in court costs.
November 1998: Charged with battery after incident in which a male Florida State cheerleader was beaten outside Big Daddy's, a Tallahassee bar. Charges later dropped.
January 1999: Arrested in Tallahassee and charged with underage alcohol possession, two months shy of his 21st birthday. Pleads no contest, and case is not adjudicated. Ordered to pay $215 in costs and serve one day in a county work program.
January 2000: Charged with attempted bribery of a police officer moonlighting as a security guard outside the Grove bar in Tallahassee. Allegedly offered officer $300 to release a friend charged with trespass after being refused access to the club. Found not guilty on June 13, 2000.
June 2000: Arrested by plainclothes campus police in parking lot outside Florida State student hangout, Potbelly's. Officers alleged they saw Janikowski with water bottle and cap containing a clear liquid that the officer suspected was gamma hydroxy butyrate (GHB), commonly known as the "date-rape" drug. Officers said that after they identified themselves, he dumped the water bottle on the passenger-side floor mat of his car. Tests later identified the substance as GHB. Found not guilty in April 2001.
October 2001: Sustained five-stitch cut near his eye when he fell while dancing at the Sno-Drift bar and dance club at 1830 Third St., San Francisco. Police sources said Janikowski had an apparent drug overdose, and a paramedic source said the dispatch call on 911 came in as an overdose of GHB.
October 2002: Charged with misdemeanor drunken driving after being pulled over in Oakland by CHP and registering blood-alcohol level above 0.08 percent. Pleaded no contest, received three years' probation, fined $1,292, ordered to perform community service and enroll in a DUI school.
September 2003: Arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor assault, misdemeanor vandalism and being drunk in public after allegedly being involved in a fight at Slates Supper Club in Walnut Creek. Taken to Contra Costa County Jail, bailed out the next morning.

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