SAN DIEGO – Raider Nation was thrown into turmoil early yesterday when it was revealed that Pro Bowl center Barret Robbins had been ordered back to Oakland for inexcusably going AWOL for most of Saturday and reporting late for the team meeting the night before Super Bowl XXXVII.
It left open for debate whether Al Davis and Bill Callahan cut off their noses to spite their face by punishing Robbins so severely with Warren Sapp and the Bucs licking their chops along the defensive line.
Why punish the rest of the team on the biggest night of most of the players’ careers?
Of course, the second-guessing jury should be out because nothing has been revealed about Robbins’ emotional state and degree of insubordination upon his return.
Davis has collected a litany of players whose motto was “Just Sin, Baby,” and he never reacted with such swift justice.
This is not the first time Robbins has run afoul of the Raiders. Back in 1996, he was inactive for a 24-19 loss to the Broncos after disappearing from the team. At the time, the Raiders stated Brooks experienced “a recurrence of a medical disorder that occurred in college.”
The team also said the problem was hereditary and that Brooks’ mother also suffered from the same disorder. The Raiders speculated that Brooks had a chemical imbalance and had an adverse reaction to medication he was taking for the disorder mixed with medication he was taking for the flu.
Robbins had been listed as questionable with a foot injury, and the Raiders do have faith in backup Adam Treu, a 6-foot-5, 300-pound player in his sixth year out of Nebraska.
After Robbins injured his right knee and missed the final 14 games of the 2001 season, Treu took his place as the Raiders’ starting center.
Davis and Callahan were clearly counting on the pride and poise of veterans such as Rich Gannon, Jerry Rice and Tim Brown on offense and Bill Romanowski and Rod Woodson on defense to prevent a nervous breakdown.
Oakland linebacker Bill Romanowski, interviewed by ABC’s Melissa Stark yesterday, was asked whether the situation was distracting to the team. “It really isn’t,” he said, declining further comment.
It is mind-boggling that Robbins, an eighth-year player out of TCU, would show such stupidity and selfishness after all these months and years spent trying to get to the Super Bowl.
The Bengals could tell you about drug-ravaged running back Stanley Wilson, and the Falcons have a lurid tale about safety Eugene Robinson. Now add Robbins to the Ripley’s Believe-It-Or-Not Hall of Shame.
With wire reports