Barret Robbins, Former Oakland Raiders Star Who Went Missing Before Super Bowl, Dies at 52

NEED TO KNOW

• Barret Robbins, a former All-Pro center for the Oakland Raiders, has died at 52
• Robbins, a second round draft pick out of TCU in 1995, played nine seasons for the Raiders
• The athlete had a history of mental heath and legal problems

Barret Robbins, a former Oakland Raiders All-Pro offensive lineman who infamously went missing before Super Bowl XXXVII in 2003 and had a history of mental health problems and legal issues, has died. Robbins was 52.

Robbins died in his sleep, according to his former teammate, Hall of Fame wide receiver Tim Brown, who was notified by Robbins’ wife.

“It's with great regret I tell you I just received a call from Marisa Robbins informing me that Raiders All Pro center Barett Robbins passed away overnight,” Brown wrote on X on Friday, March 27.

“Thankfully, he passed peacefully in his sleep. Please pray for their girls, his family and tons of teammates who will be affected by this!" he added. "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!”

Robbins was selected by the Raiders in the second round of the 1995 NFL Draft, and played nine seasons with the team, improving each year after not starting any games his rookie year, ESPN reported.

By 2002, he earned his first Pro Bowl and All-Pro nods in a season in which the Raiders beat the New York Jets and Tennessee Titans to earn a Super Bowl berth against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

But on the eve of the game in San Diego, Robbins — who had been diagnosed with depression during his playing days at TCU — went missing in Tijuana, Mexico. 

The starting center returned to the team just before kickoff but coach Bill Callahan did not allow him to play, saying at the time that the athlete was incoherent, according to ESPN.

After the Raiders lost to the Bucs, 48-21, many fans believed Robbins’ absence contributed to the defeat.

And before the game, Robbins’ disappearance perplexed his teammates and management, some of whom thought he had been kidnapped, according to an NBC Sports podcast.

“We jumped on the bus and waited for a bit,” right tackle Barry Sims said on the episode of the Sports Uncovered Podcast: The Mysterious Disappearance that Changed a Super Bowl. "And couldn’t find him. And it was really surreal to be out there doing walk-throughs and, you know, missing our guy. Missing our Pro Bowl center.”

It was later determined that the 6-foot, 3-inch, 325 lb. lineman was drinking in bars in the city and had ventured into Mexico. According to the podcast, Robbins had contemplated suicide.

“I was aware of all that, but I wasn’t,” Robbins recalled in a 2011 interview with NBC Sports Bay Area broadcaster Greg Papa. “I wasn’t able to do the right things to get ... you know ... I don’t know. I just made some bad decisions, obviously.”

Marisa Robbins later revealed that her husband told her he had been partying in Mexico because he thought that the game was over and that the Raiders had already won, she said in a 2009 interview with SFGate.

After entering rehab at the Betty Ford Center later that day, he returned to the team the following year — which was his last after testing positive for performance enhancing drugs.

The Houston native was arrested multiple times after his NFL career, including in 2005 when he was shot three times in a brawl with police in Miami Beach, Fla.

In 2011, Robbins was sentenced to five years in prison for a drug-related probation violation and was released in 2012, and in 2016, he was charged with assaulting a mom and her daughter outside a Florida hotel, per ESPN.

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Sportswriter Andrea Kremer was among those who have posted tributes to the troubled Robbins.

“Sad to hear of the passing of Barret Robbins,” she wrote on X on Friday. “He trusted me to tell his story over the years. Deepest condolences to Marisa, Marley and Madison. Truly…RIP Barret.”

If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health challenges, emotional distress, substance use problems, or just needs to talk, call or text 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org 24/7.

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