Offensive linemen are football’s unsung heroes. They give up their huge bulk to shield quarterbacks and make room for running backs. Their occupations are crucial, but their success is reflected.
Throughout his 12-year career with the Cardinals and Packers, James Robbins, sometimes known as Tootie, was one of those strong, silent sorts. Drafted in 1982, he made the National Football League all-rookie team and helped the Cardinals, then based in St. Louis, reach the playoffs that season. Many losing seasons followed when the team relocated to Arizona, and he ended his career with two seasons in Green Bay. Despite a long run of injuries, Tootie was a consistent right tackle.
His teammates warmly remembered Robbins, who was listed as 6-foot-5 and 300 pounds in his playing days; they called him “Big Smooth” because he was “so smooth the way he dressed and went about his life,” said Derek Kennard, a fellow offensive lineman on the Cardinals. Between practices, Robbins would retreat to his custom-designed van, where he would watch television and listen to music with his teammates.
Robbins died on August 2 in Chandler, Arizona, from Covid-19-related pneumonia, according to his wife, Shaneeta Robbins. He was 62.
James Elbert Robbins was born June 2, 1958, in Windsor, North Carolina. His parents, Cullen and Mary Robbins, were sharecroppers, and Tootie — named after a babysitter who had the same moniker – labored in the fields harvesting corn, tobacco, peanuts, and soybeans before heading to football practice. He attended East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, and continues to be one of
“He used to tell me, ‘I grew up on the farm, ate whatever I wanted, and had fantastic health, and then we moved to the city, and I can’t believe people pay for bottled water,'” she said.
The couple had one son, Barret, who, as a muscular teenager, piqued the interest of his school’s football coach. But Tootie, whose body was deteriorating from decades of football, said no.
“I want him to walk when he’s 30,” he told his wife, who works in human resources for a Phoenix-area school district. “People don’t realize the beatings these men receive,” she added.
Robbins appeared in 159 games over his career, starting 147. He retired when the Packers drastically reduced his compensation following the 1993 season.
Injuries take their toll, but I was fortunate to play 12 seasons in the National Football League; many players would take that,” Robbins told The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in 2015. “I enjoyed the game and didn’t play for money. But the truth is that it’s a young man’s game, and someone will always take your position.
