Brandon Spikes’ new role: Helping NFL players realize when it’s time to move on

Former Patriots linebacker Brandon Spikes was perhaps at his lowest moment in 2016.

He had been out of the NFL for more than a year and was coming off a four-game suspension in 2015 for pleading guilty to leaving the scene of an accident in Massachusetts. Spikes, 29 at the time, was having success in a new career as a certified credit investor, but he badly wanted to keep playing football. He just couldn’t find a job.

So he called Bill Belichick for help.

Keep in mind: Spikes’ two tenures with the Patriots had ended under controversial circumstances, first in 2013 when he was late to a playoff practice and subsequently placed on injured reserve to close the books on his rookie contract. And in 2015, Belichick released Spikes due to the legal issue less than a month after they reunited.

Spikes was desperate, though, and he couldn’t believe how the call to Belichick unfolded.

“Honestly, I’ve never felt like this, I wanted to give up. I really did until I reached out to Bill,” Spikes said. “I reached out to everybody, people I trusted and loved, and they just couldn’t give me an answer why I wasn’t in the league. So I was like, ‘Fuck it, I’m about to call Bill.’ So I called Bill Belichick, and of course, he answered on the first ring. I was like, ‘What, you picked up my phone call?’ I couldn’t believe it. I hadn’t spoken to him since the incident. It’s been a while. I asked, ‘Hey coach, how do I get back in the league? I’m starving. I’m itching. I know I can still go. I know I can play at a high level. Can I come back there?’ He’s like, ‘Well, you can’t come back here. We tried that, and you see what happened.’

“I was like, ‘Hell, Bill, I’ll even go to the CFL. I’ve just got to get around the guys, man. I miss the camaraderie. I was doing well with the stock market, but I was by myself. I’m used to being part of a team. It just wasn’t doing it for me. I’ll go to the CFL if you’ve got any plugs up there.’ He laughed and was like, ‘You’re not playing in the fucking CFL. I’ve got an agent (to recommend), a guy named David Canter.’”

Spikes took Belichick’s advice, connected with Canter and formed a relationship that got him back into the league, with the Buffalo Bills. And this past summer, Spikes was hired as the director of post-career affairs for Canter’s agency.

The call to Belichick helped snap Spikes out of his funk, and led him down a much more fulfilling career path.

‘I didn’t really think it was real’

Spikes, a second-round pick out of Florida in 2010, was a hard-hitting, run-stuffing linebacker who provided plenty of emotion and energy during his initial tenure with the Patriots. He started Super Bowl XLVI against the Giants, learned from the likes of Jerod Mayo and helped integrate Dont’a Hightower and Jamie Collins throughout his four-year stretch.

As Spikes spent a season with the Bills in 2014, he began to think about life outside of football, recognizing the way defenses were trending away from early-down linebackers and how that could impact his longevity. He was concerned that he was a torn ACL away from being out of the league.

That’s when Spikes began to take a liking to the stock market and got his certification, thanks to advice from a mentor. But in 2015, after some legal trouble and the suspension, Spikes felt his NFL career falling apart.

“I got in the little incident and was forced out of the league,” Spikes said. “I had a lot of time to think. I asked my friends and family, should I keep trying to get back into the league? Of course, all of them said, that’s your dream, you should keep chasing it. I had a lot of positive feedback from friends and family. I had the right people around me, but it was a tough time. I heard people talking about depression and anxiety and all that stuff, and I didn’t really think it was real until it happened to me. That was the most traumatic thing that ever happened to me as far as not being able to play football and being suspended for a whole entire year.

“I just had my daughter, my beautiful baby girl Bella. She was there to help me through that, too. I just leaned on my family. I was like, man, football has been taken away from me, and I don’t have any income coming in. That was the thing that had done it for me. People would ask what would you do if you weren’t playing football? And I couldn’t answer that because I didn’t have a Plan B. I always just wanted to ball out in football, get paid and live this crazy fantasy life. It was taken away on my behalf, something stupid.”

After speaking with Belichick, Spikes called Canter, who practically fell off his chair when he heard the linebacker’s introduction. Back it up a few years, Canter said he tried to recruit Spikes as a client before the 2010 draft, so Canter was excited to finally make it work, even though he had to shake off the initial disbelief.

“Brandon calls me,” Canter said. “I answer the phone, ‘Hello?’ He’s like, ‘What’s up, man? Is this David Canter?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ He said, ‘This is Brandon Spikes.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, right.’ He goes, ‘No, man, for real. This is Brandon Spikes.’ I’m like, ‘All right, what’s up?’ He goes, ‘Look man, I have an agent. I’m thinking about making an agent switch.’ I’m like, ‘Is this really Brandon Spikes?’ I remember saying it just like that.”

Canter’s shock factor was raised to another level after asking Spikes how he got his number.

Canter said, “He goes, ‘Man, I’ll be honest with you. Bill Belichick told me to call you.’ I was like, ‘What? Seriously?’”

Soon thereafter, Canter helped Spikes sign a one-year deal with the Bills for the 2016 season. But that season culminated with head coach Rex Ryan’s firing, and Sean McDermott’s new regime moved in a different direction at linebacker. Aside from a workout with the Lions, Spikes’ opportunities had dried up. His career was over.

No formal retirement. No ceremony. Just the all-too-common cold reality of an NFL player without a job offer.

Once more, he had to map out a plan for life after football.

‘It’s all because of him’

Canter recalled playing online video games with Spikes and a couple other NFL players when something clicked. The agent always seemed to know Spikes had a distinct, crowd-commanding type of presence in any setting – that people would stop and listen when he spoke – but this was a seemingly nondescript moment that put some things in motion.

Canter considered the totality of Spikes’ background. He overcame a lot of adversity to make it out of Shelby, N.C., was a two-time team captain and national champion at Florida, where he has since been named to the school’s Hall of Fame, and had a solid NFL career with the Patriots and Bills. He also dealt with a couple suspensions, including a four-game ban as a rookie for violating the NFL’s banned substance policy, and Spikes knew firsthand how quickly a career can end.

Spikes is also self-taught with the stock market and how to manage his own money. That became another one of his passions when he realized how many players relied on outside financial help, so he has tried to teach players to follow his lead.

Spikes learned another lesson, too. After the Patriots released him a second time and it appeared his career was over, he noticed how many people turned their backs on him. He hoped, in turn, to help others in his position clean up their inner circles.

When Spikes spoke, he did so from experience, and that’s easily recognizable.

“They know he’s fucked up before. They know he’s done dumb shit. And they also know he’s played at the highest level at the most elite level and been one of the best,” Canter said. “Everybody that looks at Brandon respects and talks to him and listens to him. And then he starts talking about some of the outside interests that he has. I start the wheels in my head.

“One of the worst parts about being an agent — it might be the worst part — is that football, more than any other sport, never tells you when it’s over. No one sends a letter to Brandon Spikes and says, ‘Hey, by the way, we’ve talked to every one of the 32 GMs in football and your career is over. Sorry. No one is interested.’ It’s up to the player and the agent to build the relationship with people who will speak truth to power.”

Canter racked his brain to find a way to keep working with Spikes, who had essentially become an extended member of his family — staying with his father at one point, hanging out with his kids and living close enough that he could drop by anytime.

So about a year ago, Canter proposed the idea of creating a position at his agency for Spikes to help clients prepare for their own lives after football. After they brainstormed for a while, Spikes decided over the summer that this job would be the right fit.

As football careers wind down, these can be excruciatingly difficult conversations to have with players, but Spikes has the life experience and gravitas to do it tactfully. When the time is right, Spikes and vice president of marketing and client relations Ness Mugrabi work with Canter’s clients to discuss a number of topics such as post-graduate degrees, internships, career placement based on industry trends and forging professional relationships.

The timing is also important. All too often, a veteran will get released during Labor Day roster cuts, get invited for a few workouts over the ensuing months and wake up in January realizing they’ve missed an entire season. Then they’ll hope to sign for the minimum but find out teams would prefer to prioritize younger, cheaper options through the draft. The next thing they know, they’ve been out of the NFL for a year-plus and also lost that time to plan for their next chapter.

“This is adding a successful, grown-up, mature leader to spearhead it,” Canter said of his post-career affairs department. “(Spikes’) No. 1 job is to be a sounding board, a leader presence for a part of players’ careers that is the scariest part and also the most hidden and not-talked-about part. Players don’t want to talk about the end. They don’t want to talk about retiring. They don’t want to talk about — what is more likely in the NFL — forced retirement.

“It’s hard for players to accept that it’s over. Brandon has to handle it, with Ness, with kid gloves. You have to be patient with the men because it’s a very emotional thing. You have to be honest with the men because it’s an emotional thing, but you also have to be sensitive that this is something for some players that they’ve worked their entire life for.”

Spikes is in the early stages of his new role, but his qualifications are undeniable. The 33-year-old is already loaded with life and football experiences of all varieties – the success story that reinforces his credibility and the struggles that heighten the genuineness of his message.

He has enjoyed passing down his wisdom for years now, so it’s a natural fit to do it professionally.

“I felt like I could give back with the younger guys with any questions they have,” said Spikes, who also launched his CBD company, Spikes CBDx, in September. “I felt I could give them some wisdom as far as (life) after football, once they retire. There are ways out here to make money. It’s never been about money for me, but I know a lot of guys I’ve met playing in the league, that’s all they do it for. It hurt me, too. When I was in the league, I was like, damn, I thought everybody was here because they loved it and it made them happy, but that wasn’t the case. It became a job. Once it became a job for me, I started trying to think of other ways of doing well and having a successful, happy life outside of football.”

So far, that’s been the case, and those around him are benefiting from Spikes’ new venture.

“When I think of things like what he’s doing now, it’s all because of him,” Canter said. “He’s just a special person.”

(Photo: Elise Amendola / AP)