(USA TODAY Sports Images)

Brandon Spikes had an unceremonious exit from the New England Patriots last season. The linebacker was placed on injured reserve against his wishes before the playoffs began. Two months later, Spikes, a free agent, signed with the Buffalo Bills. It was a good fit for both parties, especially because it gives Spikes a chance to play twice against his former team. On Wednesday, Spikes went on a Twitter rant about his former team.

It started fairly innocently, with Spikes tweeting his excitement about two games on the as-of-yet unreleased NFL schedule.

But touting a Thanksgiving and Monday night game that may or may not happen isn’t why Spikes fired up the ol’ Twitter. No, he had bigger fish to fry. Boston-area fish, to be exact.

Nothing wrong with a little smack talk to his former team. Granted, Buffalo has two wins against New England in the past 13 seasons, so a sweep is probably reaching. A lot. But if you’re not aiming high, you’re not aiming at all.

Well, that just seems unnecessary. The bicep emoji are pretty cool though. Do you think he included four to represent the expected Bills’ win total for 2014?

New England has won 35 of the last 37 against the Bills, which is crazy when you think about it. Anything that gives us an excuse to watch their two games in 2014, even if it’s a run-stopping linebacker starting a one-sided beef, is welcome.

And then the fun, but completely misguided, bravado from Spikes quickly turned into something else. Keep in mind that Spikes played four seasons in New England.

Spikes was a second-round draft pick who signed a four-year, $3.21 million contract with the Patriots in 2010 that included a reported $960,000 signing bonus.

After the inevitable backlash to his tweet comparing slavery to getting paid millions to play a game, Spikes did what most people do when confronted with Twitter backlash: He dug in his heels even more. Spikes called his haters from Massachusetts a derogatory name and said he was going to block them all, before sending a final shot.

(USA TODAY Sports Images)