Heaven or hell?

Super Bowl week can be too much for some players

A press release from the Miami law firm of Ferrell Schultz Carter Zumpano & Fertel arrived in my e-mail inbox last week. It included a checklist of dos and don'ts to help athletes minimize potential off-the-field trouble during Super Bowl weekend, and some of it was unintentionally amusing enough to sound like one of David Letterman's lists. No. 10: Make sure a criminal attorney knows your whereabouts at all times. No. 11: Have a bail bondsman on your cell phone speed dial.

I'm not making these up.

Turns out that instead of smiling and hitting delete, I probably should have forwarded it, along with the phone number for FSCZ&F, to Oakland Raiders center Barret Robbins. At the time of this writing there was no evidence that Robbins' mysterious absence from Oakland's Super Bowl disaster on Sunday was the result of any illegal activity, but the Raiders dismissed the lineman for unspecified violations, and Robbins' teammates certainly didn't make it sound as if he'd missed the game because he was tending to a sick grandmother.

Absence remains a mystery SAN DIEGO (AP) -- The disappearance of Raiders All-Pro center Barret Robbins before the Super Bowl was still a mystery Monday night. Robbins disappeared Friday night and didn't resurface for nearly 24 hours, after which the Raiders kicked him out of the team hotel. His teammates heard wild rumors about the reasons for his departure -- but Robbins spent game day in a hospital, where he was expected to remain until at least Tuesday, agent Drew Pittman said. Robbins was replaced on the AFC Pro Bowl roster Monday by New England center Damien Woody. Pittman said he hasn't spoken with Robbins since last week, but has talked to Robbins' wife. "His wife is with him in a San Diego hospital," Pittman said Monday night from Dallas. "He's receiving ongoing treatment, and had some preliminary tests done that showed there were no drugs in his system." Pittman said he hoped to learn more about Robbins' condition on Tuesday. The agent said he didn't know which hospital Robbins was in, and was unaware of his condition. Four teammates, all speaking on the condition of anonymity, told the San Francisco Chronicle that Robbins spent Saturday in Tijuana, Mexico. Pittman called the report "speculation." Checks with the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana, the Customs Service, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, San Diego police and several area hospitals yielded no further information. After the Raiders' loss, Oakland head coach Bill Callahan promised he would reveal all when the team returned home. But in typical Raiders style, the team stayed off-limits to reporters on Monday.

"If somebody chooses to do something wrong, nobody can tell them what to do," Raiders guard Frank Middleton told the Associated Press. "We have to go with the guys who want to be here. ... My concern is not B-Robb ... He paid the price for what he did. I haven't talked to him, and I don't know if I'm going to talk to him."

Even without knowing the exact nature of Robbins' apparent transgression, it seems clear that for NFL players Super Bowl weekend has become more dangerous than busting through a wedge without a helmet. We're long past the innocent days when Green Bay Packers receiver Max McGee skipped out the night before Super Bowl I to spend some time with his favorite bottle and then won the game's MVP award the next day.

These days players are prone to more serious offenses than breaking curfew. Cincinnati running back Stanley Wilson was found in a cocaine-induced daze the night before the Bengals lost to the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XXIII. In 1999, Atlanta defensive back Eugene Robinson was arrested for soliciting oral sex from an undercover policewoman the night before the Falcons lost to the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXXIII.

The tendency of some players to find a way to screw up when they're on the verge of an opportunity they've been working toward their entire careers is a sad and fascinating phenomenon. Maybe the absurd hype at some point turns into a level of pressure that some players can't handle. Maybe it's because Super Bowl weekend takes all of the distractions and temptations that are part of a pro athlete's lifestyle and concentrates them into a whirlwind three-day span. Perhaps the surprise shouldn't be that an occasional player gets himself into trouble, but that it's only an occasional player.

Robbins' presence wouldn't have changed the outcome on Sunday. It's unlikely he would have been any more successful than his overmatched fellow offensive linemen at holding off the Tampa Bay pass rush that seemed to keep crashing into the Oakland backfield like a big, angry wave. But his absence was the beginning of the end for the Raiders -- and the latest example of how Super Bowl week might seem like heaven to most players, but for some it can turn into a little bit of hell.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Phil Taylor writes about a Hot Button issue every Monday on CNNSI.com.

 

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