Free agent linebacker Takeo Spikes has said this offseason that he won’t participate in the 49ers’ player-organized workouts because he isn’t under contract to the 49ers in 2011. But plenty of players who are headed for free agency when the lockout ends are still working out with the players who were their teammates last season, and Spikes acknowledges that there’s more to his absence from the 49ers’ player-organized workouts.
Basically, Spikes told the 2 Live Stews, he just doesn’t like player-organized workouts, thinks they’re a bad idea and thinks players participating are interested in good press as much as they’re genuinely interested in getting better.
“I’m not in favor of those,” Spikes said, via Sports Radio Interviews. “And the reason why is because, number one, I think guys are doing because the next man is doing it. It’s like, if you are going to do what you are going to do, I’ve always been taught -- and I live by this creed -- that what you do in private will be displayed in public one day, so you don’t have to try to keep up with the Joneses and try to do something because, hey, this quarterback is doing it, so I’m going to do it.”
Spikes also said he thinks the players who have been unable to attend offseason workouts have been unfairly singled out for criticism.
“The next thing I hate about it is the fact that some guys legitimately they can’t come,” Spikes said. “They can’t come and so when you let the media come in and tape the workouts the first thing they are going to say is where is so-and-so? From that point, on whether it is wrong or right or indifferent, the media guys will paint a picture to the public about a guy who can’t legitimately come.”
Ultimately, Spikes says he’s of the opinion that football players should know how to stay in shape on their own without needing to get together with their teammates.
“If you can’t wake up in the morning, go work out, do what you are supposed to do and come back and have the rest of the day to do what you want to do,” Spikes said, “then you got a problem.”