The chant still echoes inside Takeo Spikes’ head.
Dec. 29, 2002. Many in a crowd of about 48,000 at Ralph Wilson Stadium were less concerned about how the Buffalo Bills would fare in a meaningless season-finale against Cincinnati (they won) than what to do about making the team a playoff contender in 2003 and beyond.
One way they thought that could happen would be doing their part to encourage Spikes, a Bengals linebacker headed to free agency, to want to wear a Bills uniform. As he walked out of the tunnel, they wanted him to know just how welcome he would be in Buffalo.
Choruses of "Spikes! Spikes! Spikes!" came pouring down from all directions.
“I've got half of the stadium yelling my name,” Spikes told The Buffalo News by phone. “I was like, ‘Wow! Is this Friday night football back in Georgia?’ ”
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Spikes, who was born in Augusta, Ga., grew up in Sandersville, Ga., and starred at Auburn University, eventually signed an offer sheet with the Bills that the Bengals didn’t match. He remained with Buffalo through 2006. After one season with the Philadelphia Eagles, Spikes spent the next three with the San Francisco 49ers, who the Bills face Monday night at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz.
Spikes finished his career with the San Diego Chargers, in 2011 and 2012.
“But when people ask me what the teams are that I really root for, hands-down, it’s Buffalo and San Francisco,” he said. “And I truly can say I love both equally. Now, when people ask me what team did I really enjoy just playing football for? It has to be the Buffalo Bills. It reminded me so much of Friday night football here in Georgia. And then they ask me, what was your favorite city that you stayed in and played football? I always say San Francisco. I trained there when I was coming out for the draft. I just loved the diversity. I'm a people person.”
It shows in a post-football-playing life that involves engaging with others to tell their stories. Spikes provided the words and photography for a coffee table book, “Behind the Mask,” a collection of interviews and photo sessions with a dozen former great linebackers in the NFL.
The self-published book released in 2017 became the inspiration for Spikes’ podcast by the same name. The show features NFL analysis and interviews with pro athletes and celebrities that cover topics including fatherhood, relationships, business ventures, social issues and personal stories. Spikes also provides commentary on the 49ers for NBC Sports Bay Area.
In the latest edition of One-on-One Coverage, The News spoke with Spikes about his time with the Bills and his other NFL stops, how he got interested in photography and writing, and the story behind his name.
Buffalo News: What made you want to become an author?
Takeo Spikes: When I retired, I wanted to just really share my story of what I went through. I never realized, because I was so caught up in the grind of it, that I had a resilient career to fight, fight, fight after nothing was ever given to me, not even breadcrumbs. And I continued to play 15 years. I was nominated captain 13 out of those 15 years.
Then, I thought, "Well, why not get other great linebackers to be included?" But I didn't have any intentions on writing my book. After I retired and I went back to school at the University of Miami to get an MBA, the first class we took was called creative writing and thinking. The professor said, "I want you to write about what led to you coming here?" The professor put my paper on the board the next day. I was thinking, "Oh, (expletive), he's about to kill me. He's using me as an example." He said, "I'm not going to call this person's name, but I want you to see his paper because this is exactly what I want."
He talked about how I set the scene in the intro, how I had three different parts to the body, and how the conclusion of it was condensed down into a brief synopsis, leaving the reader to want to know more. When I finished that class, I was like, "Wow! I didn't know I could write that well."
Once I decided to do the book, I was thinking about letting someone else do it for me. But the professor convinced me not to give up that credit and just have someone edit it for grammar and make sure it flowed. I was staying up watching YouTube damn near all night learning how to edit pictures.
BN: Let’s dig into your book. You have some strong voices: Mike Singletary, Derrick Brooks, Chuck Bednarik.
TS: I went through every decade and pulled one linebacker out of every decade, starting from the '50s, with Chuck Bednarik. He passed away, so I actually got this last interview and photography set before he passed away. That led to me, now, doing the “Behind the Mask” podcast. And one of the things that I saw was, I had a knack for being able to make people feel comfortable and they become vulnerable in small spaces, to where they open up and just share, like what made them great, share some of the greatest stories that they've never shared with anybody else before.
I sat down with every guy. I had them share with me their defining moment of when the light bulb went on in their head, as far as when they decided to be something way, way more important than just average. When I asked Willie Lanier at what point did he know he loved football, his response to me was, "Takeo, I didn't love football. It was pretty much a means to an end for me. It was a way for me to come out of poverty."
He went on to explain what really generated the drive for him to play the game was one day, when he was 12 or 13 years old, his father brought home a business magazine that talked about business being conducted in different countries. He said when he was flipping through the magazine, he was intrigued about how business took place and he wanted to learn more. He said he knew his parents didn't have enough money to send him to college.
Therefore, he knew the only other way that he could go was to get a scholarship playing sports. And that's what he decided to do. And that's the reason why he ended up only playing 11 years. He said, "I love the game, but it wasn't like I went to bed saying, 'Oh, I can't wait to put my body through this abuse.' I was really sparked by that moment when I read that magazine and it gave me an opportunity to see the world was so much bigger than the living room that I'm sitting in."
I'm actually working on Volume Two, as we speak. It’s on running backs.
BN: So, what was your moment?
TS: My moment was when my father brought home a tape that talked about setting goals. And not just setting goals for long term, but setting goals year after year and making them high goals to where it's not something to where you can go outside and pull the leaf off the tree and say, "Hey, I accomplished that." This needs to be high to where you're steadily grinding. Everything that I saw from my parents – discipline, loyalty, commitment – I just took the work ethic part and just put it into the plan of like, "You know what? I want to become a professional football player, because I love playing the game." It was one of the first things that I knew where I could hit somebody and not get in trouble for it.
When he brought home that tape, I started writing down my goals. I wanted to be an All-American in high school, I wanted to be an All-American in college, I wanted to go to a Division I college, I wanted to be the number one linebacker in the nation. I put all of this down on paper at 13 years old. Three years later, I damn near accomplished all of that. Instead of me being the number one linebacker in the nation, I was number two (behind Keith Brooking). I wanted to be drafted in the first round within the top 15 picks; I was number 13 to the Cincinnati Bengals.
Now, before you get to your goals, you have to do this first. And you have to do it every day because if you don't, your goals don't matter. It was really about, "How can I become a better person?" One was, put God first. Two was, whatever you decide to do, you love what you do. Three was, be committed to what you do. Four was, be honest, always be straight up with people. Five was, regardless of whatever is presented in front of you, you make sure you keep your priorities in order. And six was, my golden rule: Treat people the way you would want to be treated.
I had that written on a piece of paper that I put on a wall in my bedroom. I put it somewhere so that it was first thing that I saw when I went to bed and the first thing I saw when I woke up in the morning. Even to this day, I don't care how nice my house is, I never forget my humble beginnings so you still will see that piece of paper. I would ask myself every night before I went to bed, "Did you do all of that today?" If I felt like I didn't, it was more so, "Alright, you've got another chance, but you cannot get to where you're taking a step back."
And then, in the morning, I would remind myself when I wake up, if I did it from the day before, it turned into, "OK, I've got a three-day streak going. Can I make it into a week? OK, now, can I make it into two weeks? Can I turn it into a month?" If I didn't feel like I did what was supposed to be done, it was like, "OK, how fast can you get back on track and to become the person you really want to be?" It was an internal competition.
BN: When did you get into photography?
TS: My mother was always great at capturing the moment, but the moment was blurry. Little did I know, as I was teaching her how to take a picture, I was becoming hooked on taking pictures. When I was in San Francisco, we played a game in London. I took my camera with me and just try to capture the essence of the moment while I'm with these guys, because at that time, I was in my 13th year and I didn't know how much longer I was going to play.
While I was on the plane, all the guys were ribbing me. "Spikes, you're too big to be having a camera. You're getting soft." I didn't know what I was doing, but I was having photo shoots with some of the guys on the team. I remember taking pictures of the monuments. When I got back on the plane after we beat Denver, heading back to San Fran, I remember looking at the images and one guy was like, "Hey, man, let me take a look." Before I knew it, one turned into three, three turned into six and six turned into 15. Eventually, I had half of the plane saying, "Ooo! Go back! Go back!" From that point, I knew I was onto something.
BN: What led to your reaching a point with the Bengals that you were looking to go elsewhere?
TS: I was tired. I was trying to stay focused and stay on track. But I remember at times, the culture was so bad, and I never knew. But Willie Anderson, who's a semifinalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, took me under his wing. And he said, "There's a lot of guys on this team who are not doing what they're supposed to be doing and I don't want you to fall into that trap. So you find somebody who's doing it right," which was Willie, but he was on the offensive side, so it was hard.
I was reading leadership books. I was reading books about guys and their stories of triumph. I was reading Sun Tzu, "The Art of War." I used to cry after we got beat. That's how bad it hurt me. What really led to me leaving was every year I used train as hard as I could. I trained with some of the best guys. I remember one year I trained with Ray Lewis.
Even though we never went to the playoffs, what kept me going was one offseason, when Hines Ward said, "Takeo, I've got to be honest with you. Even though we beat y'all, you played your butt off. We always had to know where you were and what tendencies that you showed." Once he gave me that compliment, that was way more than like gold. Because I knew what I was able to do. I just needed some validation from one of my peers like, "Man, you're doing alright. It's just the coaches stink, the situation stinks." Then the next year, I remember inside Sports Illustrated, Jerome Bettis came out and said, "Look, Takeo Spikes is just as good as Ray Lewis. The problem is he just doesn't have the supporting cast."
I loved that because I never wanted to be the one who was tooting my own horn. I just felt like, if I go out there and knock your head off enough and make plays, you won't have a choice but to talk about me. Yet, regardless of what I went through, I still was a resilient young man that got through it and got better while going through it.
BN: You were on record as saying you wanted to join a playoff team, something that never happened for you in 219 games. But in 2003 you ended up with the Bills, who were in the early stages of what would be a long postseason drought after being a wild-card team in 1999. Why?
TS: I went to Buffalo because I felt like it had all the writing on the wall. Drew Bledsoe came in and I remember vividly him burning it up the first eight games of 2002, while I was in my last year in Cincinnati. I looked at all of the pieces. I looked at London Fletcher. I knew Sam Adams was going to come. It was like, "Sam, you coming to Buffalo? I ain't coming unless you're coming." I knew they already had Pat Williams. Aaron Schobel was another guy who I really respected but he really didn't get a lot of hype because of just a bad situation. Antoine Winfield, Nate Clements, Eric Moulds. They had everything. And I was like, "Man, I'm going to Buffalo. I had an opportunity with another team, the Saints, but they were still trying to recover from (Mike) Ditka selling the house for Ricky Williams.
Do I regret going to Buffalo at that time? No. I'm going to tell you where I think we went wrong. I think they should have kept Gregg Williams has head coach. I don't know everything, but I really felt like we were headed in the right direction. And we just did not draft well the year that I got there. J.P. Losman, John McCargo. The talent didn't come in, and it wasn't developed.
BN: What do you remember most about your Buffalo years?
TS: I remember the friendships. I remember Drew Bledsoe really welcoming me in and we all knew how big Drew was at the time. Drew, (fullback) Dave Moore, (center) Trey Teague, these guys took me out to dinner. And it was genuine. I remember the relationships I had just with guys inside of the linebacker room. London Fletcher, Mario Haggan, Angelo Crowell; we are still tight to this day. I remember one guy who I felt really didn't get enough credit was Don Blackmon, our linebackers coach. He was awesome. Goes down as one of the better coaches that I've ever been associated with.
BN: After a strong beginning with the Bills, you suffered an Achilles injury and things just seemed to unravel for you physically and never really got back on track. What was that like?
TS: From my perspective, things were becoming shaky, just as you said, and what made it so hard to deal with was I was now on my third coach within a three-year period. That's what really made it hard for me coming back. Then we had Dick Jauron while I was coming off the injury and I remember you could tell it was different because that staff wrote me off.
I didn't hear anything from them when they came in. They didn't even reach out to see how I was doing. Nothing. Once I came back to camp – and I was still getting through my injury – you could tell (defensive coordinator) Perry Fewell and I didn't see eye to eye. I didn't like Perry; I still don't like him to this day, to be honest with you. The writing was on the wall. I think the disappointing thing for me was you had guys who were hired to come in and change things around. But they were not subject matter experts. And I knew it. It's hard for you to respect somebody like that when you know they don't even know just as much as you know.
BN: After the Bills, there was the one season in Philly, where you tore your rotator cuff in the next-to-the-last game of the season, and you end up reviving your career with the 49ers.
TS: I truly believe San Francisco was all part of God's plan. When I walked into that locker room, I saw a young Patrick Willis, who was so hungry for knowledge. Patrick was me walking into the Cincinnati Bengals locker room. The culture in San Francisco was so bad when I got there. There was no standard. Mike Nolan was trying to change that, but he just didn't have enough of the right guys in. And so when I came on board with him and Mike Singletary, I knew my role. I wasn't so much worried about, "Oh, I want to be an All-Pro." My role was, "Let me cultivate a relationship here to where guys can trust each other."
And for this young kid named Patrick Willis, I needed to make sure that I took out all of the thinking for him and let him play at a level that he hasn't played before. That was my entire goal. And I wanted him to take more of a leadership role, but he wasn't comfortable because he was so young. I needed him because he was the proof in the pudding to be able to gather everybody together, but he needed me just from the knowledge and reassurance that what he was doing was good.
I ended up getting another two-year extension in San Fran. And what eventually killed the dreams in San Francisco is the same thing that killed the dreams everywhere else I've been: poor quarterback play. I never had a quarterback who really burned it up.
BN: You were named after a Japanese Prime Minister, Takeo Fukuda. What's the story behind that?
TS: My mother believed in the power of names. She wanted to name me after my father, Jimmie Lee Spikes. My father did not want me to have his name. She asked him why and he said, "Well, my name is too old-time. I want him to have more of an up-to-date name."
Back then, a woman stayed in the hospital for three days after having a baby. So, she said she didn't know what she was going to name me until she looked up at the TV. The Prime Minister of Japan was speaking at the time, and she did some research and found out that his name meant great warrior, hero in Japanese. And so, from that point, she said, "This will be my little great warrior."
BN: How disruptive do you think it’s going to be for the 49ers to play a home game in Arizona?
TS: Put it this way, it's jacked up. These guys found out while they were on the plan headed to Los Angeles for last Sunday's game against the Rams (that Santa Clara County would no longer allow contact sports). This team has been at a full disadvantage the entire year. Taking into consideration the pandemic, but then you've got the injuries consistently. And this is the most injured team in the NFL this year and probably for the last few years.
But when I look at the state of the team, I think it puts more value on Kyle Shanahan and also – he probably won't be there next year – defensive coordinator Robert Saleh. These guys do a wonderful job of game planning.
