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Does This Mean He’s Black Sheep of Raider Family?

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Is it possible that Sebastian Janikowski is too much of a Raider, even for the Oakland Raiders?

The Florida State kicker had five brushes with the law in the two years before the Raiders drafted him. Said tackle Lincoln Kennedy after hearing their new No. 1 pick’s resume, “When I heard all that, I knew he was a Raider.”

Not that Janikowski had reformed yet. Two weeks ago, eight days after being acquitted of trying to bribe a policeman not to arrest a friend of his outside a bar, he was arrested for possession of GHB, the so-called “date-rape drug.”

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When Janikowski missed curfew before the Sugar Bowl, Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden played him anyway, joking the Polish-born Janikowski was on “Warsaw rules.”

Some now suspect a tad more structure might have helped the young man. The San Jose Mercury’s Ann Killion has re-christened it “Federally Stupid University.”

So what does that make the Raiders?

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Trivia time: Who was the youngest pitcher to win a Cy Young Award?

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Another purist: Washington Redskin cornerback Deion Sanders, on ABC’s hiring of a comedian as a “Monday Night Football” commentator: “Having Dennis Miller probably would liven up the boring telecasts. I just hope he’s not an insult to this game just for a gimmick, just to attract a larger audience.”

Everyone knows how Deion hates gimmicks.

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Oops: Not that the Detroit Pistons’ rookie personnel boss Joe Dumars was caught off-guard by the rigors of modern recruiting but. . . . As soon as the NBA’s deadline for contacting players passed, the Orlando Magic flew Grant Hill and his wife to Florida and wined and dined them all weekend.

Meanwhile, Dumars had to call off his trip to London to watch Wimbledon.

Hill now says he’ll sign with Orlando.

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After you: Amid headlines in the London tabloids, questioning whether Serena Williams tanked her Wimbledon semifinal match against older sister Venus, the Mirror quoted their mother, Oracene, on Venus’ reaction when Serena won last summer’s U.S. Open.

“It was almost like a death, that loss for Venus [in the semifinals to Martina Hingis],” Oracene said. “She didn’t sleep, and I felt her emotion all night, so I couldn’t sleep well either. She thinks since she’s the oldest, she should have been the first to [win] a Grand Slam final, that maybe she should have been tougher. . . .

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“As a mum you think, ‘Not the younger one first.’ You want to pull it back to the natural order of things. But sometimes things just happen that way.

“Maybe it was a wake-up call for Venus to be tougher. . . . Hopefully she can gain something from that disappointment.”

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Trivia answer: The Mets’ Dwight Gooden, who was 20 when he won in 1985.

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And finally: Chris Evert, on the Williams sisters: “Mr. [Richard] Williams likes to comment on how the girls were dodging bullets and there were drug dealers around when they played. You never know if he’s exaggerating. But they’ve become role models and are great for the game. It just proves you don’t have to belong to a rich, snazzy country club to play tennis.”

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