Ex-Pro Bowler Wiley relishes ride into semi-retirement

	Marcellus Wiley, who began his 10-year career with the Bills in 1996, posted 44 career sacks, 323 tackles and 2 INTs. AP

SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- Marcellus Wiley's expression doesn't change as he sifts through a batch of car keys placed atop his office drawer. Looking at each set, the sound of clinking steel drowning out the music in the background, he finally comes to an obvious conclusion.

"We can't get in a Lamborghini," he says. "Lamborghinis are for little cats. Let's take the Ferrari."

At 6-foot-4, 275 pounds, Wiley, who has played for the Bills, Chargers, Cowboys and Jaguars during his 10-year NFL career, is certainly not a "little cat," as he still takes up every inch of the driver's seat inside his Ferrari 360 Spider. "Put your seatbelt on," he tells me as he pops in an Outkast CD. "Ferraris are much lower, so it'll seem like we're going faster than we really are."

Maybe, but when the speedometer reaches triple figures, the actual speed is the last thing on my mind, as I clutch the sides of the cream-colored interior, praying for us to reach our destination as we race past cars that don't have an F1 World Championship pedigree.

Wiley, an unsigned free agent, is showing me what he plans to do with himself this upcoming season -- if no teams ask for his services. He hasn't announced his retirement but seems reserved to that inevitability as training camps open this month.

"I don't think that I will be punching walls out just because I'm not hitting someone at camp in July or August," he says, admitting he hasn't experienced a summer without football since he was seven years old. "The only time that will hurt will be that first week, the first game, the first kickoff. I cry every time that happens. I don't know why. It's the beginning of the season; it's the beginning of your hopes, the beginning of the team's dreams. I'll probably have to hide from the TV during kickoff that first week."

He won't have a hard time distracting himself from his big screen TV. All he has to do is drive to the Elevee Motorsport garage not far from his home in Santa Monica, where he is helping to customize the cars of current players such as Chad Johnson, T.J. Houshmandzadeh and Dennis Northcutt. At the moment, Wiley's rides -- a Rolls Royce Phantom, Ford Excursion and, of course, the Ferrari -- are the centerpieces of the garage with Wiley giving credit to the men who paid for each one.

"I'm never getting rid of my Phantom; Jerry Jones bought that in '04," he says, referring to the four-year, $20 million deal he signed with the Cowboys in 2004. "The Ferrari, Jerry Jones split that with [Chargers owner] Alex Spanos."

While Wiley likely won't be having any more owners buying him fancy new cars, he has been spending most of his time recently helping players, who are still in the running for a few more paydays, pick out and pimp out their rides. It's a decision he made not only because of his passion for cars but his desire to maintain the extravagant lifestyle he was afforded as an NFL player.

"I think that's the hardest thing ... talking to all the retired guys, is the transition, 'What am I going to do next?'" says Wiley, a two-time Pro Bowler who was a second-round pick with the Bills out of Columbia in 1996. "If you haven't planned for it, then retirement is scary. It's like you're retired, but you're 30. You're not 60-something. You gotta live off that money, off that lifestyle, that mentality. You understand that there's more to life than tackles, sacks and yard losses. When you can kind of swallow that pill, you do what you and you do it great, and then you move on to the next thing."

Wiley isn't ready to admit he's played his last game in the NFL, comparing it to a relationship on hiatus as he sees how "the next thing" works out. "It's like when you break up with your girl," he says. "You know you're supposed to be broken up, but she calls you and you're like, 'Okay, let's talk it out.'" Yet as he signs papers in his office, it becomes increasingly clear that he's been preparing for this moment since he walked off the field at Arrowhead Stadium for what will likely be his last game in the NFL last season.

"I walked off the field and I looked around and I kind of took a smell," he says. "You know you always try to stay in the moment, but I took a smell that time and said, 'You know, this might be the last time I walk out here.' Every day in the league was a blessing to me."