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Vacchiano: Eugene Robinson sends strong message to Panthers
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Vacchiano: Eugene Robinson sends strong message to Panthers

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Eugene Robinson, now a Panthers radio broadcaster, speaks with the team about his arrest the day of Super Bowl XXXIII. Rick Stewart/Getty Images

Eugene Robinson, now a Panthers radio broadcaster, speaks with the team about his arrest the day of Super Bowl XXXIII. 

SAN JOSE — It happened so long ago, most of the Carolina Panthers didn’t know any of the sordid details, if they even knew Eugene Robinson’s story at all. And he surely didn’t have to tell them. To the players, he was just a former player and the team’s radio analyst.

But as the Panthers got ready for one of the biggest and greatest nights of their lives, Robinson wanted to tell them the story about the worst night of his.

“It was just to tell these guys, ‘Don’t mess this up man. Don’t mess this up,’” Robinson said. “I can be a living example. Don’t mess this up.’ … I want my guys to know, ‘Hey, you’ve got a great opportunity – a great opportunity. Go ahead and seize the moment.

“And don’t be like me.’”

That is great and painful advice for Robinson to give, considering how his life turned for the worse on Jan. 30, 1999. He was a Pro Bowl safety then, getting ready to play in his third Super Bowl the next day. He had even just received the Bart Starr Award, given annually to a player “who best exemplifies outstanding character and leadership.”

Then everything went wrong.

That night, a mere hours before the kickoff of Super Bowl XXXIII in Miami, an undercover cop arrested him for soliciting a prostitute. He played the next day anyway, but he was terrible and obviously distracted, even giving up an 80-yard touchdown from John Elway to Rod Smith.

The Falcons lost, 34-19. Robinson’s reputation was ruined. He became one of the greatest Super Bowl punch lines of all time.

“It was painful,” Robinson said after the Panthers’ interview session on Tuesday at the San Jose Convention Center. “I cried the entire night and I’m like, ‘How did I get so far over here when I was way over there?’ It’s easy to lose your way when you’re selfish and when you’re thinking about yourself, and that’s the only thing you’re thinking about. That’s what I did.

“Like I told the guys, that was the worst night of my life. The worst. Nothing else compares.”

Robinson, now 52 and 15 years removed from his final season in the NFL (with Carolina in 2000), told that story to the Panthers players on Sunday before they left Charlotte for their week in the Bay Area. They had already been warned of the pitfalls of Super Bowl week, of course, and warned by their coaches to stay focused and out of trouble.

Some of them might have even known a little about Robinson’s story. Or maybe they heard about Stanley Wilson, the Bengals running back who was caught using cocaine the night before Super Bowl XXIII. Or Barret Robbins, the Raiders center who went missing the night before Super Bowl XXXVII.

Exported.;MIKE BLAKE/REUTERS

Robinson allows an 80-yard touchdown pass in Super Bowl XXXIII mere hours after being arrested for soliciting a prostitute.

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But stories from a generation or two ago were one thing. Robinson knew the warnings would take on a special meaning if they came straight from him.

“Getting to this stage, there are three things easy to forget: Faith, family and football,” Robinson said. “And I forgot all three. Hearing it come from me is a little bit different.”

It sounds like he was right.

“It was shocking to most,” said Panthers quarterback Cam Newton. “I know a lot of guys didn’t expect that. A lot of guys wouldn’t necessarily be comfortable with telling everyone their story, but he did. And I think a lot of guys kind of stepped back and understood the value and the importance of staying focused in an environment like this.”

“He was really passionate in there, man,” added Panthers receiver Corey Brown. “You could tell. His eyes got a little watery. He was tearing up a little bit. Because that’s something that you can’t get back, those Super Bowl memories and the fact that he feels like he let everybody down. That’s why he felt so passionate about that.”

Two days later, with five dangerous nights still to go before Super Bowl 50, Panthers coach Ron Rivera called Robinson “courageous” for telling his story, which ended with the Panthers players giving him a standing ovation. “It was one of the bravest things I’ve seen a guy do,” Rivera said. “For him to step up and relive that and tell the guys he was wrong, he forgot the reason why he was there, that’s a huge message.

“And a great message.”

And a painful one, Robinson admitted, since that one awful night is what almost everyone knows about his otherwise-outstanding, 16-year NFL career. He does have one championship ring, thanks to the 1996 Green Bay Packers, but he still seems to believe he’s the reason he doesn’t have two. He knows how badly he wasted a rare opportunity and destroyed an image with one horrible, selfish decision.

Robinson doesn’t want the Panthers to waste their moment like he did. Because he’s only left with one strong, lingering memory from that whole awful experience.

“This is what I told them,” Robinson said. “I cried all night. Dude, I cried all night.”

Tags:
carolina panthers ,
atlanta falcons ,
nfl ,
eugene robinson ,
nfl playoffs ,
super bowl

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