Great News...Kinda: Spikes wants to be a FA

[Romes]

http://espn.go.com/nfl/news/2003/0116/1494113.html

Great News on one hand that he wants to leave the Bengals. Bad news is that he admitted he expects the Bengals to tag him.

"I don't want a tag on me,'' said Spikes, who has declined interviews since midseason. "I feel like my time is done. I did all I can do. I did all that I owed not only to them, but to myself. I just want to win. I just want to compete. That's my whole objective. I don't look at the time I spent in Cincinnati as wasted time. I just want to go somewhere to compete and win.''

I hope the Bengals listen to what their player wants and let him go.

[LABillsFan]

Lewis was thought to have some influence on Spikes if he came to coach the Bengals. Guess not.

[mackey789]

I guarantee they let him become a free agent, and i guarantee the bills go after him. Hopefully we outbid everyone else. Its one of the positions that we desperatly need to fill so im sure TD will do whatever he can do to lure him in.

[PA Season Ticket Holder]

I don't believe in the tags. If the player doesn't want to play there, I wouldn't want to force somebody to stay. It would only create animosity within the orginaiztion.

[Romes]

This comment answers so many questions I had about Spikes actaully coming here. If the Lewis hiring would affect his decesion? Guess not. If the Bengals really were seriously thinking of tagging him? Guess so. If Takeo would come out and speak up against the tag? Guess so. If Takeo really does want out of Cincy? Yes, very badly actually. This article makes me so happy. :D

PA, I agree. A tag on Spikes in this situation would just breed animosity. The Bengals just have to suck it up and let him go.

[venis2k1]

This is some of the best news i have heard all week.

[venis2k1]

Im sure he will be told that the new coach will bring in new life...Dedicated to Defense...blah blah blah...and he will end up staying.

[SoCalBillsFan]

This is great. Now the organization has to think about whether they want to tag a player who doesnt want to be there. Exactly what we wanted.

[don137]

The Bengals are in a no win situation. If they let him go it sends a message to the fans that even though they have a new coach they are still the Bengals that could care less about winning. If they do tag him then they just really pissed off Spikes.

[TypicalBill]

unfortunately, whether he like's it or not, if they are willing to pay him the average of the top 5 LB's in the league, then they'll tag him for a year whether he like's it or not. Although i'd sure love to have him here.

[Ð]

If I were in his situation, my stance would be who gives a **** about Lewis? He's never coached me, I have no particular attachement to him AND if you tag my ass, then expect sub-par performance for the sub-par $ you're gonna pay me.
Show me the money!!!!!!!

I don't know why everyone thinks playing for Lewis is all that.

[don137]

The Bengals could always do what the Eagles did to Jermaine Trotter which was tag him but realize having a pissed off Trotter on the team won't do much good for team chemistry so they drop the tag.

[justasportsfan]

"I just want to win. I just want to compete. That's my whole objective. I don't look at the time I spent in Cincinnati as wasted time. I just want to go somewhere to compete and win.''

Then the bills is the team for Spikes. We may not make the SB 4 consecutive times again , but we'll get there soon with or w/o him.

[BillsNYC]

THIS IS THE BEST NEWS I'VE HEARD ALL OFF SEASON!!!

this is making my day....donahoe....get out ralph's checkbook and give this guy whatever he wants!!! spikes would look good in red white and blue!

oh man...imagine him and fletcher running sideline to sideline!!! 2 tackling machines!!!!!

[Bulldog]

I will bet anything that Cincy will still tag him. Sucks for both Buffalo and Spikes.

[BFBills]

yah,but cinci will slap the tag on him

[Patrick76777]

If we do grab him, I think the Fans should get a lot of credit. We really put the idea of playing here into his head during that last game. If it all goes down, that game will be our best performance of the season.

[Ed]

It really is a no-win situation for the Bengals. If a player just really doesn't want to be somewhere, there's not much teams can do. Yes, the Bengals could tag him, but then what? If he doesn't want to sign a long term deal then he just plays one season for like $5 million and is free to go. The Bengals would never do that though. There's no point in a bad team giving one guy a big paycheck for one year if he's going to leave. That's why the "tags" are so stupid. If a player gets tagged and then complains about it, then that pretty much forces the team to either come to an agreement on a long term deal or remove the tag and let the player walk. You can't force a player to sign a long term deal if they want out, so the players still pretty much have the power.

The whole tag system was a nice idea, but it's flawed and doesn't work right now like it was intended to. It was supposed to be a good thing for teams and players, but it kind of back fired which is why you never see players playing under the one year tag contract and probably never will.

If a player wants out that bad, then chances are it's going to happen. And to me it sounds like Spikes wants out of Cincy pretty bad, so I'd put my money on Spikes not being a Bengal next year or in the future. That doesn't mean he'd be a Bill, but it definately sounds like we have a great shot at getting him if he does in fact become a FA. And that would be sweet, Spikes is awesome.

[Michael82]

WOO HOO! This is pretty good news. I'm thinking that Marvin Lewis will convince Mike Brown to let him go. Marvin will work on bringing the LB from Chicago to Cincy and Spikes will sign a nice big contract on Day 1 of Free Agency with the Buffalo Bills!

:pray: