Greg Papa’s ‘Lost Barret Robbins Interview’ finally surfaces
Fateful chapter in Oakland Raiders' history explored in 'Sports Uncovered' podcast and TV special
In 2011, Bay Area sportscaster Greg Papa traveled to the Dade Correctional Institution in Florida to interview Barret Robbins, the former Oakland Raiders star center who infamously missed playing in the 2003 Super Bowl after skipping out on the team.
For various reasons, that interview never aired.
Now, nine years later, portions of Papa’s chat with Robbins will finally surface — along with updated material — in an NBC Bay Area podcast and television program. “Sports Uncovered: The Lost Barret Robbins Interview,” will drop Thursday morning, July 9, in podcast form. Then, at 10 p.m. Thursday, a half-hour version will air on NBCBA at 10 p.m.
The show also will be available on NBC Sports Bay Area and California’s YouTube channel after the airing.
Raiders fans still recall, with bitter dismay, how Robbins, who is bipolar, went AWOL just two days before Super Bowl XXXVII in San Diego. After returning from partying in Tijuana, Mexico, Robbins was suspended by Oakland head coach Bill Callahan.
Many believe that Robbins’ absence had a major impact on the game, in which the Raiders were defeated, 48–21, by Jon Gruden’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Raiders haven’t made it back to the Super Bowl since.
Producers of the podcast say it will detail “the mental-health and addiction issues” that caused Robbins to leave the Raiders for Mexico just before the Super Bowl, and that ultimately led to his benching and eventually the end of his NFL career, and a post-football life filled by run-ins with the law.
Also covered: Why some ex-Raiders believe a flawed, last-minute coaching decision by Callahan put too much pressure on Robbins and sabotaged the team’s chances to win the Super Bowl. And “deeper details” about Robbins’ troubled post-NFL days, including his first-person account of being shot by Miami Beach police in 2005, and a recently uncovered 2019 arrest that could hint at his current whereabouts and well-being.
In addition to the Robbins interview, the podcast features contributions from former Raiders Tim Brown, Lincoln Kennedy, Bill Romanowski and Rod Woodson; former Raiders executives Amy Trask and Bruce Allen; and veteran NFL reporter Andrea Kremer, who conducted a sit-down interview with Robbins for a 2009 edition of HBO’s “Real Sports.”
The Robbins story is the fifth installment in the “Sports Uncovered” podcast series, which explores “new, underreported or forgotten aspects of well-known topics, personalities and events” in the pro sports world. Episodes are available for download now on all major podcast platforms, including: NBCSports.com/podcasts, NBC Sports’ Scores app, Apple, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Podcasts, TuneIn and iHeart.