Raiders podcast: Scott Bair on Barret Robbins’ disappearance at Super Bowl 37

Editor’s note: Every Wednesday, as part of her “Vegas Nation: Takeaways” podcast, producer/videographer Heidi Fang talks to a Raiders player or personality. This has been edited for clarity and completeness. This week: NBC Sports Bay Area’s Scott Bair, who helped to compile last week’s podcast report about Raiders center Barret Robbins and his disappearance before Super Bowl XXXVII.

Heidi Fang: (The podcast) said that this was literally recovered from the trash, Scott. So how did this finally come to light? And how did this end up in the trash?

Scott Bair: Yeah, it was something that just got lost in the shuffle. It was going to be a long-form documentary film, really, and NBC Sports Bay Area’s Greg Papa, who was a long-time former radio voice of the Raiders, and some of our video crew traveled to South Florida, where Barret was in prison for one of his several stretches. And they went into the middle of a jailyard, not into a private cell with a door or anything. Into a jailyard. They sat down over the course of two days with Barret Robbins. And he was very candid and talked about basically everything. And it was kind of a weird experience for those guys. The story is that one time, their only security guard fell asleep on them right as they got to some very difficult questions.

But nonetheless, this tape, which is so good and so valuable — and I encourage people that listen to the podcast to go watch the interview in its entirety on NBC Sports Bay Area YouTube channel – it ultimately didn’t work out getting all of the other components put together and it got put on a shelf. And then that shelf got dusty. Right? And then it kind of sat there forever. And eventually … somebody said, “Hey, don’t forget about this.” And the person who shot it had to go back and sift through it and try to find exactly where this fantastic interview was, and ultimately, resurrected it. And we really kind of built everything around it because Barret hasn’t been talking to very many people lately.

HF: You had multiple Raiders that were involved in speaking about this. And one of them that interests me was Tim Brown, the wide receiver for the Raiders, who said that there was a lot of blame to put on Bill Callahan — who was the coach at the time who had just replaced (Jon) Gruden, who was now coaching on the opposite side with the Bucs — and that he had changed the game plan maybe a couple of days before. And all of that pressure was falling on Robbins, who was known to have depression.

SB: I think ultimately Tim Brown in the podcast legitimately says, Bill Callahan’s the worst thing to ever happen to this organization. That is no mincing words from a guy with incredible status, both within the NFL and also within the Raiders kind of hierarchy. I thought that that was powerful. And the intimation to say that changing the game plan from a power-rushing scheme — something that Barrett was very good at — to passing 55 or 60 times at the last minute can definitely overwhelm you. Changing a game plan on a Friday is something that’s virtually unheard of, even in Week 2.

HF: It feels like something that a lot of people, particularly Al Davis at the time, couldn’t get over – a 48-21 blowout. What kind of effect do you think that Barret Robbins’ absence had on this Super Bowl game?

SB: I think it’s a piece of the puzzle. Maybe a large piece. I don’t know if it’s the largest piece, though. Because while the Raiders were favored going into that game, changing the game plan late doesn’t help the fact that they could tell which play was coming. Right?

HF: They never changed it. It’s crazy.

SB: That absolutely blows my mind. Jon Gruden was a guy — former Raiders offensive lineman, Mo Collins even said, “I’d stop a bullet for that guy.” — that they loved him. Jon Gruden is on the other side after that crazy trade in 2002. Two first-rounders, two second-rounders and $8 million. The impossible dream of a trade that Al Davis — according to Amy Trask from when I interviewed her about two years back — said he just kinda threw out a number thinking that would never possibly get taken. And then it happened. So I think it’s all those things is why it hurt Al Davis so bad. Somebody who’s not used to losing. I’m sure he was still bothered by losing Super Bowl II.

Heidi Fang can be reached at hfang@reviewjournal.com. Download the Vegas Nation podcasts three times a week at www.LVRJ.com/podcasts.