The Las Vegas Raiders have had a rough offseason, and Friday brought more pain. The team announced on X that former center Barret Robbins had passed away. He was 51. No cause of death was given.
Robbins was born in Houston, Texas, and came up through Sharpstown High School before landing at TCU. The Raiders selected him in the second round of the 1995 NFL Draft, and over the next eight seasons, he became one of the more reliable pieces on that offensive line.
He appeared in 121 games and started 105 of them. During his tenure, Las Vegas led the league in rushing in 2000 and ranked first in total offense in 2002. That same year, Robbins earned a Pro Bowl selection and anchored the line through the Raiders' run to Super Bowl XXXVII before they fell to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 48-21.
The news broke through former teammate Tim Brown, who shared a statement on X after receiving a call from Marissa Robbins.
"Rest peacefully, BR, you deserve it!" Brown wrote, confirming that Robbins had died peacefully in his sleep. Brown asked for prayers for Robbins' daughters, his family and former teammates dealing with the loss.
He also pointed to the Super Bowl ban as a turning point, suggesting it changed the direction of Robbins' life in ways that were hard to come back from.
That Super Bowl moment remains one of the more painful chapters in Raiders history. In the days leading up to Super Bowl XXXVII in 2003, Robbins went missing for nearly 24 hours. When he returned, head coach Bill Callahan said Robbins appeared incoherent and could not play.
Robbins later revealed he had stopped taking medication prescribed for bipolar disorder and depression. He played nine games in 2003 before the Raiders released him in 2004 following violations related to performance-enhancing drugs.
Life after football was hard for Robbins. In 2005, he was shot three times by police in Miami Beach during a burglary investigation and later pleaded guilty to five charges. In 2011, a judge sentenced him to five years in prison for violating probation in a drug case and he was released in 2012.
In 2016, he faced additional charges tied to an alleged assault involving a woman and her daughter outside a Florida hotel.
Robbins leaves behind a complicated legacy, but also a real one. For eight seasons, he was a cornerstone of some of the most productive Raiders offenses the franchise has ever put together. The Raiders family is mourning one of their own.
