Barret Robbins, Raiders center who disappeared before Super Bowl, dies
Former Oakland Raiders center Barret Robbins died, the Las Vegas Raiders confirmed Friday, March 27. He was 52. No cause of death was immediately known.
“The Raiders Family is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Barret Robbins. … The thought and condolences of the entire Raider Nation are with Barret’s family and friends during this difficult time,” the Raiders said in a statement.
Robbins famously went missing from the team in the days leading up to Super Bowl 37, which Oakland lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 48-21.
Eventually diagnosed with bipolar disorder, Robbins went missing the day before Super Sunday on Jan. 26, 2003. He returned to the team in time but was deemed unable to play. Robbins later told ESPN that he’d convinced himself the Raiders already won and that he was celebrating; he even reached Tijuana, Mexico, although he could not recall why he went there. Super Bowl 37 was played in San Diego.
“I mean, this was the biggest game of my life,” Robbins told ESPN months later. “This was everything I had worked for as a child, as a young man, as a collegiate athlete and going into the pros, this is everything I had worked for and … it’s unbelievable to me.”
Robbins completed a 30-day stint in rehab, where he was treated for bipolar disorder and alcohol abuse after the episode before, returning to the team. Robbins later told HBO’s Real Sports he would enter manic episodes for weeks at a time.
During that 2002 season, Robbins made the Pro Bowl and was named first-team All-Pro. He played nine games the next season in what was his final NFL campaign.
The Raiders selected Robbins in the second round of the 1995 draft (49th overall) out of Texas Christian University. He started 105 contests for the Silver and Black and played 121 regular-season games total.
The pre-Super Bowl episode was one of many mental-health-related incidents involving Robbins. A brawl with police in Miami Beach in 2005 led to him being shot three times, and he pleaded guilty to five charges from the incident, including attempted murder. Robbins was charged with assaulting a woman and her daughter outside a Florida hotel in 2016. In 2020, he was arrested three times in the span of a month in south Florida.
Raiders teammates Rich Gannon and Tim Brown posted on social media about Robbins’ death, with Brown writing that Robbins’ wife, Marissa, told him that Robbins passed peacefully in his sleep.
“Please pray for their girls, his family and tons of teammates who will be affected by this!” Brown wrote. “It’s unfortunate that his life was never the same after he was not allowed to play in the Super Bowl! Rest Peacefully BR, you deserve it!”
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