Oakland Raiders’ center hospitalized
Former TCU player has history of depression
By Janie McCauley
Associated Press

ALAMEDA, Calif. — Barret Robbins was incoherent and didn’t know where he was the night before the Super Bowl, Oakland Raiders’ coach Bill Callahan said Wednesday in his first public comments about the troubled All-Pro center.

Robbins, who has a history of depression, spent Super Bowl Sunday in a San Diego hospital after disappearing from the team’s hotel the night before.

The 6-foot-3, 320-pound lineman, who played for TCU from 1991 to 1994, reportedly had stopped taking his medicine for depression. He missed a team meeting, a position meeting and a walk through practice Saturday, Callahan said.

“I was fearful something wrong was occurring,” said Callahan, who decided to bench Robbins on Saturday night, then later chose to send him home.
Robbins could not make flight arrangements from San Diego to Oakland because his wallet and identification were missing, Callahan said.
A man who says he was among a group that drank with Robbins on the day before the Super Bowl told the San Francisco Chronicle that heavy drinking left the Raiders’ center despondent and suicidal.

“He was crying and totally depressed about his life and the pressure he was under,” said Cartier Dise, who owns a vehicle customizing business that has provided rims and wheels for the vehicles of Raiders players.
“This guy was messed up. All he could think about was his family, his two daughters,” Dise told the newspaper. “He was talking about killing himself, saying he was disappointing people and he had a lot of people to support financially and he was letting them all down.”

The Raiders lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 48-21.

“There’s a point in time you can only do so much as a coach and as an organization,” Callahan said. “His situation didn’t mandate personal bodyguards around the clock.”

When asked if Robbins is still a Raider, Callahan said, “absolutely” and said there’s a “viable” chance he will play for the team.

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