Fred Robbins (born March 25, 1977) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

defensive tackle A defensive tackle (DT) is a position in American football that will typically line up on the line of scrimmage, opposite one of the offensive guards, however he may also line up opposite one of the tackles. Defensive tackles are typically the la ...

. He was drafted by the

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansion ...

in the second round of the

2000 NFL Draft The 2000 NFL Draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur U.S. college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 15– 16, 2000, at the Thea ...

. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

at Wake Forest. Robbins also played for the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

and

St. Louis Rams The St. Louis Rams were a professional American football team of the National Football League (NFL). They played in St. Louis from 1995 to the 2015 season, before moving back to Los Angeles, where the team had played from 1946 to 1994. The arr ...

Early years

Robbins attended

J. M. Tate High School J.M. Tate High School is a secondary school in Cantonment, Florida, United States. The school is part of the Escambia County School District. History Tate High School was founded in 1878 by James Madison Tate Sr., a American Civil War, Civil Wa ...

Pensacola, Florida Pensacola () is the westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle, and the county seat and only incorporated city of Escambia County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 54,312. Pensacola is the principal ...

and was a student and a letterman in

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

and baseball. In football, he was a three-year

letterman Letterman may refer to: * Letterman (sports), a classification of high school or college athlete in the United States People * David Letterman (born 1947), American television talk show host ** ''Late Night with David Letterman'', talk show that ...

and as a senior, he was an All-City selection and an All-Northwest Florida selection.

College career

Robbins started every game for three years at

and finished his career with 15 quarterback sacks and 44 tackles-for-loss. He was a Second-team All-

ACC ACC most often refers to: * Atlantic Coast Conference, an NCAA Division I collegiate athletic conference located in the US *American College of Cardiology, A US-based nonprofit medical association that bestows credentials upon cardiovascular spec ...

choice as a senior. He helped the Demon Deacons’ defense improve from 9th to 2nd in the ACC in 1999.

Professional career

Pre-draft

Minnesota Vikings

Robbins was drafted on the second round of the

by the

. He signed a four-year $5.5 million deal with the Vikings. As a rookie in

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

, played in 8 games as a reserve and had 5 tackles and one sack. In

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

, played in 16 games with 12 starts and had 45 tackles (16 solo) and 2 sacks. In

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

, played in 16 games with 15 starts for the Vikings and recorded 41 tackles (23 solo). Robbins led the team with 7 tackles for loss and had a career-high 4 passes defensed. In

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

, he played in all 16 games with 12 starts for the Vikings and finished with 30 tackles, 5 tackles for loss, and 5 quarterback hurries and recovered one fumble.

New York Giants

On March 7, 2004, Robbins signed with the

for six years and $20 million, including a $4 million bonus. In his first season with the Giants in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

, he started all 15 games and recorded 40 tackles (31 solo), 5 sacks, 1 interception, 2 passes defensed and 2 forced fumble. In

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

, played in all 16 regular season games with 6 starts at

and finished the season with 23 tackles (14 solo), 1.5 sacks, 1 pass defensed and 1 fumble recovery. In

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

, Robbins started all 16 regular season games and the NFC Wild Card Game and finished with career-high totals of 62 tackles (39 solo), 5.5 sacks, 2 interceptions and 34 quarterback hurries. In

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

, he played in 16 regular season with 15 starts and started all 4 postseason games and finished with 42 tackles (21 solo), 5.5 sacks, 26 QB hurries, 10 QB hits and 1 pass defensed. Robbins was also picked by his teammates to be a defensive captain for the 2008 season. In 2008, he started in all 14 regular season games in which he played and had 36 tackles (24 solo), 5.5 sacks and 3 passes defensed. It was the 3rd consecutive season he finished with 5.5 sacks, his career high. He was named to the 2008 ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...

'' All-Pro team. Robbins had microfracture surgery following the 2008 season, and managed just two sacks in 16 games in 2009.

NFL statistics

St. Louis Rams

Robbins signed a three-year $11.3 million contract with the St. Louis Rams. The deal included a roster bonus of $3.4 million. He was released following the 2011 season on March 12, 2012.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robbins, Fred 1977 births Living people Players of American football from Pensacola, Florida African-American players of American football American football defensive tackles Wake Forest Demon Deacons football players Minnesota Vikings players New York Giants players St. Louis Rams players 21st-century African-American sportspeople 20th-century African-American sportspeople Ed Block Courage Award recipients