Takeo Spikes to start 200 game

[Saniflush]

Damn I wish we had a clone of him right now.

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/sep/04/acee-takeo-spikes-verge-almost-unfathomable-milest/

A two-hour practice in the heat of an August afternoon had ended 15 minutes prior. Yet Chargers linebackers coach Joe Barry was just making his way off the field.

“He’s wearing me out,” Barry said, smiling and shaking his head.

Behind Barry came one of the several wonders of the NFL.

“You can never work too much,” Takeo Spikes said as a waterfall of perspiration cascaded from his head down his tree trunk neck.

Evidently not. For that, Spikes is on the verge of an accomplishment that is almost absurd.

On Monday night in Oakland, he will do what just seven men have ever done.

Spikes will start his 200th game. At linebacker.

He said he didn’t know about the milestone until I told him a couple weeks ago. More recently, he said, “It hasn’t hit me yet. It’s a great honor. I really don’t know how many guys accomplished that; I know it’s few. It’s a big deal.”

A simple response from a man who simply loves playing football.

But please put this in perspective, even aside from the historic numbers, which indicate on their own that the 35-year-old Spikes is a marvel.

“The guy is a machine,” Barry said. “He’s an absolute machine.”

Chargers running back Ryan Mathews, a player whose position at least puts him in the same orbit as a linebacker in terms of number of times each game that he collides with another large human, said when he was in a car accident recently it felt the next day as if he had played four games.

By that math, Spikes has endured about 50 car accidents over the past 14 seasons. That’s probably a conservative estimation.

And he keeps coming back for more.

Just four times in his 14 seasons has Spikes even missed a game. Only once has he played fewer than 12 games.

And he evidently hasn’t given thought to when it will end.

Just four linebackers in NFL history have played more than 15 seasons.

“People ask me all the time, ‘How long do you want to play?’ “ Spike said. “If I could play this game forever, I would. But that’s not possible. So, you know what, I take it day by day.”

Day by difficult day.

“The numbers speak for themselves -- the years, his age, the games,” Barry said.

But what speaks louder are the reasons Spikes has gotten to this point.

After 14 years in the NFL, Spikes expected Barry to challenge him every day this summer – be it after practice for those 15-minute sessions on hand placement during a blitz or during special teams period for a tutorial on pass coverage.

“It’s just unbelievable how he goes about it,” said Barry, who coached Derrick Brooks in Tampa Bay for seven seasons and easily draws comparisons between the two. “When a player has God-given ability -- great physical tools, he can run, he’s fast, he can change direction – and takes those great abilities and adds unbelievable work ethic, you’ve got a great player ... What makes him special is what makes him unique – not only the ability he has, but the inner drive he has.”

Spikes’ investment in his career is total. He practically employs a masseuse full-time. He regularly sleeps in a hyperbaric chamber. He is a proud hypochondriac.

“The biggest thing is coming in tune with your body,” he said. “After you have some injuries and you pay attention to the small things. If it’s a hangnail, I treat it just as bad as if it was a torn hamstring because if you take care of things while they are little, then they never have the opportunity to grow up and be big.”

Spikes has never been to the playoffs and has been since arriving in San Diego last summer consumed by helping the Chargers get there. Speaking with him on any given day leaves no doubt as to that.

But even if he doesn’t do so, his contribution could last longer than what he does while he’s here.

Perhaps Spikes’ greatest legacy is that he is who Donald Butler and Melvin Ingram and Jonas Mouton will be talking about in five or six years when they’re asked who had the greatest impact on their career.

When he got done joking – “He’s older than dirt … We need to check his birth certificate.” – Butler said as much. Spikes has imparted knowledge gained from experience on everything from how to read offenses and decipher defenses, preparation in the meeting room and weight room, diet and down time.

“It’s mind-blowing to even think about," Butler said, in all seriousness, of how long Spikes has played and how much he knows.

Barry alternately calls him a machine and a beast.

There are all sorts of reasons guys wash out of the NFL before they should, and it’s not always injury or because someone else is better. Sometimes, it’s because they don’t want to put in the work.

Spikes has played almost four times as long as the league average.

I call what he is doing absolutely amazing.

[GH2001]

I remember when he was at AU when I was there. His weight room antics/abilities were almost things of legend. I think he really could benchpress over 500 lbs. And I don't think he really tried too hard, just a given talent.

[Godfather]

We once had a bachelor party for Spikes. He ate the entire cake, before we could tell him there was a stripper in it.

[Snaggletiger]

I remember when he was at AU when I was there. His weight room antics/abilities were almost things of legend. I think he really could benchpress over 500 lbs. And I don't think he really tried too hard, just a given talent.

A guy I know used to play LB at Arky.  He was in the gym during the off season working chest.  Set after set on the incline bench with 225.  Repping it out.  I'm watching in amazement when he hits the wall for a second.  Lets the bar rest on his chest for a second and explodes through the rest of that set.

I'm thinking, some people just live on a different planet.  My world doesn't look like that.

[Buzz Killington]

I once saw him scissor kick Angela Landsbury

[chinook]

soooo...takeo's neck is starting it's 201st game. 

[Buzz Killington]

You know, he would shoot whiskey into his neck with a syringe

[Snaggletiger]

soooo...takeo's neck is starting it's 201st game.

What neck?

[Godfather]

Spike's family crest is a picture of a barracuda, eating Neil Armstrong.

[GH2001]

Spike's family crest is a picture of a barracuda, eating Neil Armstrong and Chuck Norris begging for mercy.

There ya go

[Buzz Killington]

He drives an ice cream truck covered in human skulls

[GH2001]

He drives an ice cream truck covered in human skulls

Now THAT's a pussy wagon!

Even more keen than dallas and Jake in the Stang.

[Buzz Killington]

One time I was with Takeo in the back of a pickup truck, along with a live deer. Takeo goes up to the deer and says, 'I'm Takeo Spikes! SAY IT!' Then he manipulates the deer's lips in such a way as to make it say, 'Warfuckingeagle' ... It wasn't exactly like it, but it was pretty good for a deer!

[Godfather]

Did I ever tell you about the time Takeo Spikes forced Karlos Dansby to wear a woman's bikini? Well anyway, Spikes tears off Dansby's clothes and forces him to wear this skimpy bikini. For the next three months he had to play all of the games wearing only a woman's bathing suit. Dansby would cry from shame and question his manhood daily, but I'll be damned if at the end of the quarter his tackles hadn't tripled.

[GH2001]

Did I ever tell you about the time Takeo Spikes forced Karlos Dansby to wear a woman's bikini? Well anyway, Spikes tears off Dansby's clothes and forces him to wear this skimpy bikini. For the next three months he had to play all of the games wearing only a woman's bathing suit. Dansby would cry from shame and question his manhood daily, but I'll be damned if at the end of the quarter his tackles hadn't tripled.

Would have been better with Stephen Davis.

[Snaggletiger]

Would have been better with Stephen Davis.

Sneaky good hustle

[Tiger Wench]

My little personal fantasy...

When he eventually does retire, Takeo decides to give something back to the Auburn WAR FUCKING EAGLE University that made his career possible...

And comes back to coach our LBs...

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... too bad nookie can't bottle THAT feeling...

[Godfather]

Ya know, he jumped off the Empire State Building this one time and he only sprained his ankle.

[Buzz Killington]

He's also 1/8th Cherokee.  It has nothing to do with his ancestry though.  He ate a fucking Indian.

[Godfather]

So anyway, Takeo would put on a white tie and tails and walk his cobra through the park on a leash. He named the cobra Beverly, and he taught it how to fetch and dial a phone. But then one day it bit the maid. So with tears in his eyes, Spike's had to shoot the maid.