2012 SD Chargers Media Guide_PROOF.P - Seahawks Online ...

51 TAKEO SPIKESInside Linebacker UFA (San Francisco) - ’116-2, 242 Auburn15th NFL SeasonWashington County HS2nd with ChargersSandersville, Ga.VETERANS &RETURNING PLAYERSIt didn’t take long for veteran inside linebacker TakeoSpikes to make an impression in San Diego. Immediatelyupon arrival after signing a three-year contract in late-July2011, Spikes set out to get to know everything and everyonehe could inside the Chargers’ organization. At the startof training camp, he made a point of sharing meals withdifferent groups of teammates so he could learn abouteach of them and what made them tick. He struck up animmediate kinship with the team’s offensive leader, quarterbackPhilip Rivers. And just weeks later before the seasoneven started, teammates knew Spikes was a specialindividual and voted him a team captain.Spikes paced his new team with 119 tackles, his 11thcareer100-tackle season, and he mentored fellow insidelinebacker Donald Butler, who was basically a rookie aftermissing his entire rookie season with an Achilles injury.Spikes’ experience resonated on Butler who ended upranking second behind Spikes in tackles with 102. At theend of the year, teammates voted another honor forSpikes, this time selecting him as the team’s Most InspirationalPlayer.Over a 14-year NFL career that has seen him play inCincinnati, Buffalo, Philadelphia, San Francisco and nowSan Diego, Spikes has become one of the NFL’s most popularplayers. He’s an 11-time team captain and is followedby more than 390,000 fans on Twitter. With an eye towardbroadcasting, Spikes has a lengthy background in media. InJanuary, he spent a week doing interviews on various platformsat the ESPN studios in Bristol, Conn. and in February,he was one of the most sought-out athletes to make therounds of media row at Super Bowl XLVI. While playing inSan Francisco from 2008-10, Spikes hosted his own BayArea television show, “TKO TV,” on Comcast SportsNet.There aren’t a lot of players still playing in their 15th season,as Spikes will do in 2012. Typically that type of tenureis limited to kickers, punters and quarterbacks, not linebackers.In 2011 Spikes played in his 200th career game,becoming just the 13th linebacker and 98th non-kicker toreach the milestone. His first start in 2012 mark the 200thof his career. And as further testament to his durability, atthe end of the ’11 season, Spikes was only one of eightplayers taken in the first three rounds of the 1998 NFLDraft to still be on an active roster.Spikes isn’t your typical linebacker though and he hasdevised unique training and conditioning methods thathave allowed him to play the game as long as he has. Oneof which is a hyperbaric chamber in which he often sleepsin his homes in San Diego and Atlanta, breathing pressurizedpure oxygen while asleep. It’s a technique athletes useto promote the recovery and healing of damaged tissue.A native of tiny Sandersville, Ga., Spikes learned abouthard work from those who were closest to him. He grewup about two hours from Atlanta where his mom, Lillie,was a special education teacher at the local high schooland his father, Jimmie, spent 30-plus years working in thechalk mines after working in the south’s infamous plantationfields as a youngster. Takeo spent several teenagesummers working alongside Jimmie in the mines wherefather tried to teach son that there was a better life outthere for him. The lessons paid large dividends. Jimmie wasable to see his son’s dream of a professional football careercome true before he passed in 2001.Spikes is still revered in Sandersville. His number isretired at Washington County High School and pictures ofSpikes are strewn throughout the school’s athletic facilities.Over the years, he’s helped the school financially onnumerous occasions and in June 2012 he hosted a freefootball camp at Washington County High for the 11thconsecutiveyear.Spikes’ reputation as a leader extends beyond the lockerroom and the playing field. In 2007, NFL CommissionerRoger Goodell and the NFL Players Association appointedSpikes to the first-ever Player Advisory Council, a six-mancommittee established to advise Goodell on a wide range ofplayer issues.In 2003, Spikes and former NFL linebacker CarlosEmmons launched 51 Ways, Inc. (www.TakeoSpikes51.com),a non-profit foundation that provides financial, spiritual andphysical resources to families that have children with canceror blood disorders. Both players grew up in Georgia and lostfamily members to cancer.Spikes enjoys playing golf in his free time. Teammatesoften refer to him as “TKO” or “Spikedog,” but his parentsnamed him “Takeo” after Japanese Prime Minister TakeoMiki, who served from 1974-76. Takeo means “great warrior”in Japanese. And in keeping with the family tradition,Spikes named his daughter, Jakai, another Japanese wordthat means “beautiful flower.”Spikes’ cousin, Brandon (Spikes), is a starting linebackerfor the defending AFC Champion New England Patriots.In March, Spikes, along with Carolinapunter Jason Baker, formerNFL linebacker Dhani Jones,Cleveland center Alex Mack andHouston tackle Eric Winston tookpart in a NFL-USO Tour and visitedseveral military bases in the MiddleEast. Here Spikes is pictured atForward Operating Base FarahAfghanistan with Major Rich Fierroand Corporal Yeison Betancur.Photo: NFL