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Bucs' strongest defense

Roxanne Kosarzycki has some fans in the professional athletes she represents in her job as the Bucs' legal counsel.

By AMY SCHERZER
Published August 19, 2005

TAMPA - When Oakland Raider kicker Sebastian Janikowski faced drug charges and deportation hassles, he turned to team lawyer Roxanne Kosarzycki.

When Raider Tim Brown needed help with bank loans, he called Kosarzycki.

Kosarzycki, now 41, handled her share of litigation for the Raiders, but it was helping players with their personal legal problems that earned her their trust.

"Ex-wives, mothers of their children, court orders, garnishments, the word was, "Go See Roxanne,"' she said.

That respect, as well as her legal expertise, is why general manager Bruce Allen recruited her to be the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' in-house legal counsel.

"Anyone who has worked with Roxanne knows she's not only understanding, but compassionate," said Allen, a former Raiders executive.

"Every player and his lawyer is very appreciative."

Since arriving in February 2004, Kosarzycki has gained Tampa fans too. In June, the Hillsborough County Bar Association named her Corporate Counsel of the Year. She was honored June 7 at the Wyndham Harbour Island Hotel.

"In the next seven years, we're going to spend more than $1-billion dollars in players' salaries," Allen said. "And every contract will go through Roxanne."

Hearing that number even shocked her, Kosarzycki said.

Her 50- to 60-hour work week includes litigation, arbitration and grievances, media dealings, Pewter Partner and merchandising agreements, trademark protection and enforcement, and contracts related to the future $30-million training facility on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

Recently, she handled Keenan McCardell's holdout grievance. A decision is pending.

"No off-season for me," she said from her office at One Buc Place. On many nights, she works at her Odessa home, after her children, Christopher, 6, and Sarah, 4, are in bed. Her husband, Gene, oversees construction of the training facility for the Bucs' owners.

The couple met when Gene was project manager for the company building the Raiders' new training facility. She controlled the budget. Their dating caused a conflict of interest when litigation ensued, she said.

Sports law was the only kind of law that ever interested Kosarzycki. She applied to just one school - Southwestern University School of Law - because they offered an internship with the then Los Angeles Raiders.

"I really wanted to be a coach, but I knew that wasn't going to happen," said Kosarzycki, who was a cheerleader growing up in Newport Beach, Calif.

After two years as a legal intern, the Raiders hired her full time in 1992.

Her familiarity with a fee dispute between the Raiders and the family of Joe Alioto, anti-trust lawyer and former mayor of San Francisco, ensured her job.

"They said they had to keep me because I was the only one who knew the facts of the case," Kosarzycki said.

In 1995, the Raiders' move to Oakland brought a host of litigation related to the new venue, the Oakland Coliseum. Some of her legal work sounds like a John Grisham plot. In a case between the Raiders and the NFL, she helped uncover juror misconduct and got the verdict overturned. The NFL appealed, the verdict was reinstated and now the case is before the California Supreme Court.

As much as Allen wanted Kosarzycki on his team in Tampa, he couldn't just pick up the phone and offer her a job.

That would be tampering, a violation punishable by up to a $250,000 fine, she explained. Protocol requires a team to fax a request for permission to talk to top-level employees.

When the Raiders failed to respond to his fax, Allen called Kosarzycki.

"What fax?" she asked.

Allen knew to hang up.

Kosarzycki was heartbroken when Allen left the Raiders, she said. Allen followed head coach Jon Gruden and director of football operations Mark Arteaga to One Buc Place in February 2002.

When she told her boss about the odd phone call, he made two comments. Yes, she had permission to interview with the Bucs. And, if she did, she would be fired.

"I thought about it for about a minute," she said. It was Friday the 13th, she recalled, and she had worked for the Raiders for 13 years.

The Kosarzyckis took a flight to Tampa the next day to meet with the Buccaneer brass. She accepted the job right away.

Raider fans no more, they'll be in their seats on the 20-yard-line Saturday when the Bucs kick-off at home against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

"We're Bucs fans now," she said.

Amy Scherzer can be reached at 226-3332 or scherzer@sptimes.com

AGE: 41

FAMILY: Husband, Gene; children Christopher, 6, and Sarah, 4

HOME: Odessa

JOB: Lawyer for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers

UNDERGRAD: UCLA, class of 1987

WORST DAY: Jan. 27, 2003, Super Bowl XXXVII, when the Bucs beat the Raiders

BUCS SEATS: 20-yard line, Club Level, home side

CAR: 2004 BMW X3 - pewter colored

HOBBIES: Interior decorating and cooking, carrot cake is her specialty

[Last modified August 18, 2005, 11:46:08]