{"id":570152,"date":"2026-03-28T14:47:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T14:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/570152\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T14:47:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T14:47:12","slug":"nfl-star-who-went-missing-before-super-bowl-over-20-years-ago-dies-at-age-52","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/570152\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL star who went missing before Super Bowl over 20 years ago dies at age 52"},"content":{"rendered":"

Barret Robbins, a former All-Pro center largely known for leaving the Oakland Raiders<\/a>‘ team hotel on the eve of their Super Bowl appearance in 2003, has died at age 52.<\/p>\n

Ex-teammate Tim Brown, a Hall of Fame wide receiver, announced Robbins\u2019 death<\/a> Thursday night.<\/p>\n

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Brown said Marissa Robbins told him her husband died in his sleep overnight. No cause of death was provided by the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thoughts and condolences of the entire Raider Nation are with Barret’s family and friends during this difficult time,\u201d the team said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Robbins, a second-round pick out of TCU in the 1995 NFL<\/a> draft, played all nine seasons for the Raiders.<\/p>\n

\"Marissa<\/p>\n

Marissa Robbins said her husband died in his sleep overnight (AP)<\/p>\n

He was a first-team All-Pro selection in 2002, his second to last season.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease pray for (t)heir girls, his family and tons of teammates who will be affected by this!\u201d Brown wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s 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!\u201d<\/p>\n

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Robbins reportedly didn’t take his medication for depression shortly before the Raiders were to face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Super Bowl in San Diego. He was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder.<\/p>\n

He reportedly crossed the Mexican border to Tijuana before returning to the team hotel.<\/p>\n

Coach Bill Callahan suspended Robbins for the game, which the Raiders lost 48-21.<\/p>\n

\u201cSad to hear of the passing of my center and former teammate Barret Robbins,\u201d former Raiders quarterback Rich Gannon posted on social media. \u201cRIP my brother!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Barret Robbins, a former All-Pro center largely known for leaving the Oakland Raiders‘ team hotel on the eve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":570153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,280141,280143,593,280142,85,7508,1247,190700],"class_list":["post-570152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-barret-robbins","tag-marissa-robbins","tag-nfl","tag-oakland-raiders","tag-sports","tag-super-bowl","tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","tag-tim-brown"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=570152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/570153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}