shelby
11-30-2008, 07:13 AM
Linebacker Takeo Spikes returns for the first time to Buffalo much like he left the Bills a little over two years ago: A proud, determined player who remains driven to fill the one objective — playing on a playoff contender — that's eluded him through 11 NFL seasons. "I'm still searching. I'm still searching," Spikes said. "It's frustrating ... I try not to get caught up into 'Why me?' But when is it going to happen to me?"
It won't happen this year for Spikes, now a member of the 49ers (3-8). San Francisco is a team lacking identity and direction while attempting to make the best of what's left of its season on Sunday.
Since Buffalo traded him to Philadelphia in the spring of 2007, Spikes has gradually become aware that time is running out on a career in which he'll play his 152nd career game Sunday without one playoff appearance.
"Lord knows that it needs to happen soon," said the two-time Pro Bowl selection and 1998 first-round draft pick who spent his first four years regarded as the best player on a bad team in Cincinnati. "My time is not the way it used to be, versus when I got to Buffalo. I'm on the back nine now."
For someone in dire need of a mulligan, perhaps, Spikes' career so far is a hard lesson, a keen reminder for his former teammates on a Bills team that's gone eight years without a postseason appearance of its own.
more... (http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/nov/30/spikes-playoff-drought-a-reminder-for-bills/)
It won't happen this year for Spikes, now a member of the 49ers (3-8). San Francisco is a team lacking identity and direction while attempting to make the best of what's left of its season on Sunday.
Since Buffalo traded him to Philadelphia in the spring of 2007, Spikes has gradually become aware that time is running out on a career in which he'll play his 152nd career game Sunday without one playoff appearance.
"Lord knows that it needs to happen soon," said the two-time Pro Bowl selection and 1998 first-round draft pick who spent his first four years regarded as the best player on a bad team in Cincinnati. "My time is not the way it used to be, versus when I got to Buffalo. I'm on the back nine now."
For someone in dire need of a mulligan, perhaps, Spikes' career so far is a hard lesson, a keen reminder for his former teammates on a Bills team that's gone eight years without a postseason appearance of its own.
more... (http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/nov/30/spikes-playoff-drought-a-reminder-for-bills/)