Sebastian Janikowski, the ageless wonder of a kicker, has had a storied NFL career, and has earned serious money in the process. When I hear his name, I can’t help but think back to the 2000 NFL Draft, when Janikowski was the 17th player taken and rocketed him into superstardom and a pretty penny. Over the course of his career, he has racked up an absolutely eye-popping sum.
In Janikowski’s 18-year career, he has earned a reported total of $49,921,524. Wow. That’s a hefty sum! He made most of his money with the Oakland Raiders, where he played for the longest stretch of his career and became an integral part of both their culture and history.
At the time of the Draft, Janikowski was a relative unknown, and this alone was enough to get Raiders owner Al Davis salivating. The kicker received a seven-year contract with Oakland worth $16.1 million, which was, in 2000, the biggest deal ever given to a kicker. He was so convinced that he had something special when it came to Janikowski, that Davis held the kicker out for a week before eventually settling on the massive deal.
And the kicker’s value appears to have skyrocketed since then. After all, he has since earned an additional $33,821,524 in the fifteen years since, making him even richer than before. That’s big money for anyone, let alone a kicker. To put it in perspective, the average NFL salary is around $2 million – while Janikowski has earned nearly 50 times that much in his career. What a paycheck!
But that’s not all – those numbers don’t take into account any of the endorsement deals Janikowski may have picked up along the way, too. I wouldn’t be surprised if his career earnings were even higher.
I’m always amazed at the amounts of money NFL players make, and Janikowski’s is no exception. He was already making more money than most of his peers when he was drafted, and he’s only increased his bank account since then. It’s remarkable to me how much money Janikowski has collected over the years, and it shows just how much value the league places in specialists like him.
And now, with Janikowski signing with the Seattle Seahawks for the 2018 season, he can be expected to add even more money to his fortune. With the Seahawks in the market for a reliable kicker, Janikowski – a player with eighteen years of NFL experience and an impressive kicker résumé – should be the perfect fit. It’ll be exciting to see how much more he ends up making before he finally hangs it up for good.
But that’s just part of the story. In individual games, NFL kickers, in general, can pocket up to $4,356. This is a set amount regardless of how well they perform. Effectively, Janikowski has had the equivalent of one, two, sometimes three additional Sundays a year that he’s pocketing a large chunk of change.
On top of that, when looking at bonuses, Janikowski earned an astonishing $2.6 million in performance bonuses alone during his time with the Raiders. That’s just from performance incentives.
When it comes to merchandise deals, reporting isn’t always clear on the amount of money Janikowski has made, but rumors would have you believe he’s earned a pretty penny there too. Whether it be his jerseys or player-of-the-week awards or anything, it’s all cash that’s adding up.
So it’s obvious that Sebastian Janikowski has made big money in the NFL. He’s a kicker, and yet he manages to make way more than the average player in the league. He’s earned an incredible sum in the eighteen years he’s been in the league, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s even higher when he finally hangs ‘em up.
And he’s not the only one – kickers in general can make a lot of money. Not only do they get the standard salary for individual games, but they’re also eligible for bonuses, and of course merchandise deals. So all in all, kickers can make a pretty decent chunk of change from their time in the league. With players like Janikowski leading the way, you can only imagine how much money other kickers have made during their careers.
The bottom line is Janikowski has earned a ton of money in the NFL. Like, a really really huge amount. Whether it was salary, performance bonuses, or endorsements, Janikowski has collected a wealth of money throughout his career. It’s kind of inspiring when you think about it, how a player who wasn’t necessarily seen as an NFL commodity at the time has now gone and made such a name for himself. Kudos to Janikowski for setting the bar for the other players in the league.