Former Seahawks K Sebastian Janikowski retires

After one year with the Seattle Seahawks and 19 seasons in the NFL, Sebastian Janikowski is hanging up the cleats.

The former first-round draft pick — just imagine Analytics Twitter’s reaction to this move if they existed in 2000 — has announced his retirement through a statement to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

Janikowski spent his first 18 seasons with the Oakland Raiders, making the Pro Bowl in 2011 and earning second-team All-Pro honors in the same season. After Oakland opted not to re-sign him, the Seahawks signed him to a one-year contract to replace the guy who had replaced Steven Hauschka.

“Seabass” went 22-of-27 on field goal attempts and 48-of-51 on extra points in regular season play. Of note on the field goals front is that he had three game-winning kicks as time expired, including in both matchups vs. the Arizona Cardinals, and the pivotal late November road victory over the Carolina Panthers.

Unfortunately for the portly native of Poland, he wasn’t exactly in tremendous physical shape. His final game with the Seahawks saw him injure his hamstring in Seattle’s wild card loss to the Dallas Cowboys, so Seattle was forced to go for two on both second-half touchdowns, while punter Michael Dickson was tasked with kickoff duties. Maybe that was the sign that he was ready to call it a day.

Janikowski may not have been a consistently accurate kicker, but he always had a booming leg and the ability to boot it through the uprights from long distances. He leaves the sport as the all-time leader in field goals made from 50+ yards, with 58.

Seattle has since replaced Janikowski with Jason Myers, the man Sebastian beat out in training camp/preseason to win the placekicker job, while Myers went on to have a career year with the New York Jets.

With Janikowski retired, Tom Brady is now the last player from the 2000 NFL Draft who is still in the league.