TOUGH AS NAILS

TOUGH AS NAILS
Takeo Spikes is still tackling the 49ers' defense
Tom FitzGerald, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 27, 2008

(08-26) 19:06 PDT -- The 49ers "are going to be one of those teams that comes under the radar," said Takeo Spikes, although it's hard to imagine a team with the voluble linebacker flying so low in the public perception.

He said he had the Super Bowl in mind when he signed with them Aug. 10, a couple of weeks into training camp. He's not advising fans to book their rooms in Tampa, Fla., for Feb. 1, but he says the 49ers are on the way to a higher level and he aims to get them there.

Despite his credentials, Spikes hasn't been an instant sensation on the defense. If the season began today, Jeff Ulbrich would start at weak-side inside linebacker, coach Mike Nolan said Tuesday. Spikes is still learning the terminology, but it's clear the club brought in the 6-foot-2, 242-pounder envisioning him in an inside tandem with Patrick Willis at some point.

"He's got a lot of catching up to do," Nolan said. "He's going to contribute in one way or another. I'm not sure what it will be yet."

Spikes said his biggest adjustment is "finding ways to remember certain defenses and taking ones that I know from the past and finding ways to match them" with the 49ers' schemes.

"There are several calls here that were something else somewhere else. Those were key words for me in the past, so now I've got to erase them from my mind. I've pretty much got it down. The more you do it, the more it becomes second nature to you."

When it becomes second nature to the 11-year veteran, the 49ers are confident he has enough left in the tank to show the form that made him a perennial leading tackler for the Cincinnati Bengals and later a two-time Pro Bowl selection in Buffalo.

Spikes is as tough as his name. Takeo (pronounced tuh-KEE-oh) means "great warrior" in Japanese. And "Spikes" is even tougher than "Nails," the nickname of scrappy ex-outfielder Lenny Dykstra.

He also goes by the nickname Spike-Dogg. And if that's not tough enough, you can call him by his other nickname - TKO, an apt derivation of his given name.

This kind of information is available on his Web site, takeospikes51.com. "If you love San Fran Football and the man who makes the amazing hits every Sunday," it suggests, "then join the Official TKO Fan Club and be a part of Takeo Spikes' official team!" Spikes must have had writer's block over the past year; his latest diary entry is about his plans for the 2007 season. That was with Philadelphia; he had a fine season with the Eagles until he sustained a torn rotator cuff in Week 14. He was released in March in favor of younger, less expensive talent. It wasn't his first serious injury. With Buffalo in 2005 he tore an Achilles tendon in the third week while tackling Atlanta's Michael Vick and was out the rest of the season.

(Attention, Internet shoppers: The official Takeo Spikes "I'm Back" T-shirt, showing him in a Bills uniform after his Achilles rehab, has been marked down from $19.99 to $10.99 on his Web site.)

Spikes made his mark initially with the Bengals, for whom he played 79 of a possible 80 games, missing one for his father's funeral. His ability and diligence impressed defensive end Justin Smith, his teammate then, and now with the 49ers.

"He's a tough, hard-nosed football player, everything a team could want in its locker room," Smith said. "He's consistent, not up one game and down the next. He studies the game. He watches a lot of film. I think he'd be a good coach someday."

Spikes is mostly studying the 49ers' defense these days. "We have a lot of talent, especially up front, some guys who probably won't get recognition on a larger scale, like Aubrayo Franklin and Ray McDonald. Those guys come off the ball and they play hard. There's so much potential on this team," he said.

He likes the give-and-take in the defensive huddle. "Nobody's thin-skinned," he said. "Everybody talks to each other and says, 'Don't tip off your stance here' or 'We expect you to make that play.' It's constructive criticism."

He calls Willis "one of the best technicians as a young linebacker that I've seen. He's never out of position to make a play. Some guys may be all over the place where they take false steps. He's not going to give you the false steps. He understands what he has to do with his steps before the ball is even snapped. That has to do with formation recognition."

After playing his entire career in the Northeast and the Midwest, Spikes will have to adjust to largely sunny weather now.

"In Buffalo, you never could gauge what you were going to get until the night before," he said. "One time we had freezing rain. The turf was damn near frozen. It was 2 degrees wind-chill. But I enjoyed it. I like playing in the cold better than the hot."

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