[Barret Robbins](https://www.mercurynews.com/2014/10/14/former-raider-barret-robbins-back-in-bay-area-rebuilding-his-life/), the enigmatic center who battled mental illness and addiction and was suspended from the Raiders on the eve of Super Bowl XXXVII in San Diego, has died.
He was 52.
“The Raiders Family is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Barret Robbins,” the club said in statement Friday morning. “He was among the league’s top centers over nine seasons with the Raiders, earning first-team All-Pro and Pro Bowl honors in 2002 . . . the thoughts and condolences of the entire Raider Nation are with Barret’s family and friends during this difficult time.”
No details were immediately available on the cause or manner of death. Former Raiders wide receiver Tim Brown put the following post on social media Thursday night:
“It’s with great regret I tell you i just received a call from Marisa Robbins informing me that Raiders All Pro center Barrett Robbins passed away overnight. Thankfully, he passed peacefully in his sleep. Please pray for their girls, his family and tons of teammates who were affected by this!”
Former Raiders quarterback Rich Gannon said the following on X: “Sad to hear of the passing of my center and former teammate Barret Robbins. RIP my brother!”
A second-round draft pick out of Texas Christian in 1995, Robbins was a rookie the same season the Raiders relocated to Oakland from Los Angeles. He played 121 games over nine seasons with 105 starts.
But just as Robbins hit his peak in 2002 when the Raiders advanced to the Super Bowl and he was named first-team All-Pro and selected to the Pro Bowl for the first time, his life had been coming apart for years as he battled alcohol dependency and periods of mental instability.
In 1996, Robbins was disoriented during a road trip to Denver with what the Raiders described as an adverse reaction to medication and he missed the last two games of the season.
Although Robbins could be talkative and engaging particularly when discussing his hometown Houston sports teams, there were also periods of sullen silence and self-medication.
At a surprise appearance at Dublin High to assist with a Special Olympics event in October of 2014, Robbins told this news organization exclusively he was three months sober following a three-week rehab in Ann Arbor, Mich., but had been dealing with a toxic mix of alcohol, performance enhancing drugs and head injuries.
“They focused as much on the brain injury as the substance abuse,” Robbins said. “That’s a part everyone was leaving out as far as I was concerned. I’m already bipolar. I have to take medications. So even if I’m doing that and staying sober, I still have to deal with issues mentally.
“That’s OK. It’s just one more thing that tells me I can’t go back and use. It’s already a stacked deck. The more you learn, the easier it becomes to deal with.”
Robbins became a national story when he missed team activities on the eve of the Super Bowl against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. When he returned after a night of drinking in Tijuana, Robbins had no wallet or identification and was suspended by coach Bill Callahan. Callahan said Robbins was too incoherent to play.
Robbins was replaced at center by Adam Treu, the Raiders lost 48-21 to a Bucs team led by former Raiders coach Jon Gruden and teammates openly grumbled about Robbins in the aftermath.
Barret Robbins (63) at Super Bowl XXXVII in San Diego in the days before he left the team and was suspended for the game.
In a 2009 interview with Real Sports host Andrea Kremer, Robbins said of going AWOL: “I left the hotel. I don’t know what for. I wandered around aimlessly. I could remember seeing people that I knew. I could remember riding around with people that I knew but I didn’t know why I was or where I was going or what I was doing. I just … I didn’t know. I didn’t have any answers for that. I don’t have any answers for that right now. All I know is I was not where I was supposed to be.”
After a rehab stint at the Betty Ford Center, Robbins returned to the Raiders and had mended enough fences to have a solid comeback season and even won the club’s “Ed Block Courage Award” for exemplary sportsmanship, courage and dedication.
However, Robbins was one of four Raiders whose name showed up on a client list at the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) as having used anabolic steroids. He later positive for for steroids and was released in the summer of 2004.
On Christmas Eve in 2004, Robbins was arrested after punching a security guard at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel in San Francisco after earlier being escorted out of the bar.
A little more than a year later, Robbins, then 31, sustained multiple gunshot wounds after being shot in Miami Beach by police in what was described as a “violent struggle.” Charges included attempted murder. He reached a plea agreement granting him five years probation, but Robbins violated parole and spent time in jail and rehab facilities.
Robbins spent more than a year in a mental health facility for an incident in Boca Raton, Fla., where he punched a mother and her daughter.
Issues in the Florida area since 2020 for Robbins included trespassing, drug paraphernalia possession and leaving a restaurant without paying.