CARDS: Bowman’s Best 1995, Pacific 1997
ACQUIRED: In Person 5/19, 610 Houston Fan Fest 2013
CAREER SNAPSHOT:
- Robbins went to TCU where he cleared the way for the Horned Frogs offense.
- Earned the team’s award as their most outstanding lineman.
- Drafted in the second round by the Oakland Raiders in 1995.
- Robbins became the 5th center in the history of the franchise, behind Jim Otto, Dave Dalby, Don Mosebar, and Dan Turk.
- Replaced Dan Turk in the lineup officially in 1995.
- Robbins provided some nasty bite, roadgrading for guys like Napoleon Kaufman, Harvey Williams, and Tyrone Wheatley, while blocking up front for quarterbacks such as Rich Gannon, Jeff George, and Wade Wilson.
- Robbins held down the starting spot at Center until 2001- when he missed 14 games that season.
- In 2002, Barret had his finest season as a pro, and was considered the leader of the Raiders well oiled offensive line machine.
- Unfortunately before the big game, Robbins went AWOL.
- He was later found in Tijuana, Mexico where he remembered little to nothing of the Super Bowl or that night.
- The team, despite knowing his medical condition and battles with depression, had him running wind sprints in the parking lot to decide whether or not he was fit to play in the Super Bowl.
- In the off season he’d also be diagnosed with bi-polar disorder.
- Barret played 9 contests in 2003, but did not finish the season and was cut by the Raiders in 2004.
- Tough times followed soon thereafter, but a lot of those monsters had been chasing him all along.
- He’d be arrested on Christmas Eve in 2004 for punching a security guard in the face.
- Then in 2005, Barret was shot by police in Florida multiple times- and charged with attempted murder.
- By 2008 after years of battling alcohol and substance abuse layered on top of his mental issues, and time in jail, he found himself in a halfway house for treatment.
- In 2010 he’d be arrested again for being in possession of crack.
- He returned to prison for violating the terms of his parole, and released in 2012.
- Sent to a mental health facility in 2016 after committing simple assault.
- Then in 2020, he refused to pay for a meal and was arrested.
- From there, Barret’s life went eerily quiet, and it is uncertain if he received the health services he needed.
ACCOLADES:
- All Pro 2002
- Pro Bowl 2002
NOTES:
To say that Barret Robbins went through a lot is a monumental understatement. Despite everything he’s been through and the mistakes he’s made, I did have a lot of respect for the ex-All Pro. He battled drug and alcohol addiction, prescription and pain killer drug abuse, and fought depression and bi polar disorder. He had run ins with the law, shot a few times, and spent time in jail. Barret was even close to death and suffering from Pneumonia at one point. Nearly all of it was self destructive and sure, some guys you look at and wonder how they squandered all that talent, but Barret, I see as somebody whose life imploded right on the big stage under the bright lights, and they were just lucky to be there as long as they were.
When I met him and looked into his eyes, I could tell that the man deep down was a good person, and that he genuinely wanted to be seen as such- but just made decisions that were hard to live down, because of his past mental issues. He coped the only way he knew how, and the things he did, became a terrible habit that he could not unwind.
I asked him about the Texas gear he was wearing. He laughed and told me that I should know since he was born in Texas that it was hard not to have burnt orange blood and always wanted to go to UT as a kid. He didn’t have the greatest signature, but it was still nice to grab him on a few cards.
I hope people can gain some introspection on their lives and see from Barret’s example that you can survive almost anything- that his life wasn’t some tragedy, but that his life was some miracle that he had made it so far…
EPITAPH:
3/26/26- Tim Brown, (Barret’s ex-teammate from the Raiders) informed social media that he had been contacted by Robbins ex-wife, and that Barret had passed away quietly in his sleep. He was only 52.
