Barret Robbins, an All-Pro center for the Oakland Raiders whose mental health struggles led to him missing the 2003 Super Bowl after he disappeared from the team, has died at 52, the franchise said Friday.
The Raiders did not give a cause of death, but former teammate Tim Brown posted on X Thursday night that Robbins’ wife, Marissa Robbins, had called Brown to let him know that her husband had died in his sleep.
Robbins spent his entire NFL career with Oakland from 1995 to 2003, after the team drafted him out of TCU in the second round of the NFL Draft. He earned All-Pro and Pro Bowl selections in 2002, the season he helped lead the Raiders to Super Bowl XXXVII. They lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 48-21.
— Las Vegas Raiders (@Raiders) March 27, 2026
Though that season was the pinnacle of Robbins’ career, he did not appear for the Super Bowl itself. Robbins disappeared from the team for two days leading up to the game, and was reportedly seen at a bar in Tijuana, Mexico, where he was described as distraught and inebriated, according to a man who saw him and spoke anonymously to The Washington Post at the time. Another person at the bar told the San Francisco Chronicle that Robbins was suicidal, and other fans reported seeing him at another bar the Saturday afternoon before the Super Bowl.
Raiders coach Bill Callahan dismissed Robbins and sent him home once he reappeared later Saturday evening. Callahan said the center was “incoherent” at the time, and teammates anonymously told The Post that Robbins did not know where he was and could not identify Callahan.
“I was out of my mind. I was out of control. My life was unmanageable. I was completely living in a fantasy world,” Robbins told HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” in 2010. “In my mind, we had already won the Super Bowl, and we were celebrating. That’s how delusional I was.”
In his post announcing Robbins’ death, Brown said his former teammate was “never the same” after missing the game. For Robbins, however, it was just one instance in a lifelong battle with mental health problems.
Robbins was diagnosed with depression and anxiety while playing for TCU in college, at one point being hospitalized during a psychotic episode. Another hospitalization came during his second year in the NFL, his wife told the Chronicle in 2009, though he recovered and was able to continue playing. Upon his return home from the Super Bowl, Robbins was again hospitalized for further evaluation. Doctors diagnosed him with bipolar disorder and overhauled his treatment, identifying his recent behavior as indicative of a manic episode.
Robbins got sober during his offseason recovery and returned to the Raiders in 2003, appearing in nine games. A knee injury forced him to undergo surgery, however, sidelining him again. He never played in another NFL game.
The Raiders released Robbins in 2004 after his name popped up on a list of players who received steroids from the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative. He was required to submit a urine sample during the investigation, and tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs.
Once out of the league, Robbins had multiple encounters with law enforcement.
A bench warrant was issued for him in 2004 after he punched a hotel security guard on Christmas Eve and fled the scene. Less than a month later, in January 2005, he forced his way into a jewelry store and hid in the women’s bathroom after the owner called 911. Robbins was experiencing a manic episode, and thought the plain-clothed police officers who responded were robbing him. He immediately began fighting the officers, who shot him three times in the chest during the melee.
The officers said they fired at Robbins in self-defense when he reached for one of their guns, and prosecutors charged him with a slate of offenses, including attempted murder. In all, he faced 30 years in prison, but Robbins accepted a plea deal, was sentenced to five years of probation and was required to undergo additional treatment for his bipolar disorder.
However, more legal issues followed. From 2005 to 2009, Robbins was arrested and sent to prison multiple times, mostly due to issues involving drugs, including crack cocaine and marijuana. He repeatedly violated his parole and got into fights that ended in arrests, charges and more prison stints.
Police again arrested Robbins in 2015 for randomly assaulting a woman and her daughter at a hotel in Boca Raton, Fla. Most recently, in 2020, he was arrested for throwing a rock at a Delray Beach, Fla., restaurant server who confronted him for leaving without paying. Restaurant employees told police that Robbins said he was homeless and had no money before fleeing.
“If, when I go into a manic episode, I can ask for help, I’d be OK. But when I go into a manic episode, it’s not in me to ask for help,” Robbins told NBC in a 2021 interview while in jail following the restaurant incident. “… I’m not conscious of my decisions. I’m not — I’m just basically sleepwalking.”
In announcing Robbins’ death, the Raiders called him one of the league’s best centers during his career and shared condolences for his family. Robbins played 121 games for the team, starting 105 of them.
“Sad to hear of the passing of my center and former teammate, Barret Robbins,” former Raiders quarterback Rich Gannon wrote on X. “RIP my brother!”
Calling on fans to pray for Robbins’ family, Brown wrote: “Rest Peacefully BR, you deserve it!”