Former Titans K Rob Bironas dies in single car accident

vadertime

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 31, 2006
1,600
Rhode Island
Per pregame shows.  Only 36.
 
 
Bironas lost control of the SUV he was driving while traveling at a high rate of speed, and the vehicle went off the road and hit several trees before ending up in a drainage culvert, upside down.
Bironas was transported Vanderbilt University Medical Center and pronounced dead on arrival.
 
 
He had 1,032 points in his nine-year career, just 28 points behind Al Del Greco, the top scorer in the history of the Houston Oilers / Tennessee Titans organization, and he made 85.7 percent of his field-goal attempts (239 of 279) to rank fourth in NFL history in accuracy.
Bironas made a franchise-record 11 game-winning field goals, including a 60-yarder against the Indianapolis Colts in 2006 that remains the longest field goal in Oilers or Titans history.
 
 
http://www.tennessean.com/story/titansinsider/2014/09/21/titans-rob-bironas-nfl-metro-police/16001413/?from=global&sessionKey=&autologin=
 

JohnnyTheBone

Member
SoSH Member
May 28, 2007
36,331
Nobody Cares
It's a shame he kicked, but he's in a better place.  Whenever he took the field, his goal was to be the best he could be.  One extra point to add, he holds the Titans record for most game-winning FGs.  RIP Rob.
 

etakbear

Member
SoSH Member
May 30, 2010
796
I met him once at a dog adoption event - he and another Titan were there to draw in the football crowd. A good guy.
 

Dgilpin

Member
SoSH Member
Sep 19, 2006
3,774
PA
He had just worked out for the Lions last week , had he been alive I believe they would have signed him this week.
 

OCST

Sunny von Bulow
SoSH Member
Jan 10, 2004
24,483
The 718
Yeah, Ron and Rod are good guys I'm sure, but they're not kickers and they're not dead
 

JimBoSox9

will you be my friend?
SoSH Member
Nov 1, 2005
16,667
Mid-surburbia
Average Reds said:
We'll eventually discover what happened, but the description of his last night sounds like a guy who had a psychotic break.
 
Not to point at you specifically, but this ain't our first rodeo, early news cycles are messy, yadda yadda yadda.  Here's the full quote from the person Bironas 'tried to run off the road':
 

"He is dangerous, he is drunk or something. He tried to start a fight with us,'' the woman said. "My husband ran down there to see what is going on. I just want to tell the police there is something wrong with him. He is dangerous, he is drunk or he is on drugs. There is something wrong with him. He gave us a mean look. We don't even know him, and he tried to run us off the road."
 
The descriptions add up to a picture that certainly fits the scenario of a psychotic break.  They also add up to a picture that fits a guy who went out for milk and passed a slowpoke on a 1-lane road.  Not safe (obviously), but also not outside the boundary of many of our own experiences.  We have few facts and an unreliable narrator so far, smearing a guy who (maybe) had a tragic accident isn't a good post facto look.  As you say, we'll eventually find out.
 

Average Reds

Member
SoSH Member
Sep 24, 2007
35,330
Southwestern CT
JimBoSox9 said:
 
Not to point at you specifically, but this ain't our first rodeo, early news cycles are messy, yadda yadda yadda.  Here's the full quote from the person Bironas 'tried to run off the road':
 
The descriptions add up to a picture that certainly fits the scenario of a psychotic break.  They also add up to a picture that fits a guy who went out for milk and passed a slowpoke on a 1-lane road.  Not safe (obviously), but also not outside the boundary of many of our own experiences.  We have few facts and an unreliable narrator so far, smearing a guy who (maybe) had a tragic accident isn't a good post facto look.  As you say, we'll eventually find out.
 
 
Interesting that you would assume that I based my comment on the people who claim that Bironus tried to run them off the road.  To me, that's the least important aspect of this.
 
Bironus had been at home watching a movie with his wife and a family friend.  If his wife is to be believed, he wasn't drunk or high.  There was no big argument.  Bironus simply got off the couch at 10:30, said goodnight to both of them and apparently got in his car and started driving at very high speeds through the neighborhood where he lived.
 
Within a few minutes, his wife discovered that he was not in bed.  She tried his cell phone.  Then she called relatives.  Then she called the police and filed a missing persons report.  All within a few minutes of his leaving the house.
 
That is an extremely unusual reaction from his wife and it strongly indicates that she knew he was not going out for milk.
 
The couple who later called 911 could very well be unreliable narrators, but the contemporaneous account provided by their 911 call does confirm that he was somewhat out of control in his last hour alive.
 
I've heard stories of "Ambien Driving".  This is when people take a sleeping pill or two and go to bed...only to sleep walk out of their house and get behind the wheel.  It often results in serious auto accidents but It doesn't really explain his road rage.  Maybe I'm just searching for some sort of excuse because Rob and I were so close.  And by "close" I mean he was my fantasy football kicker for like five years in a row at one point.  
 

OCST

Sunny von Bulow
SoSH Member
Jan 10, 2004
24,483
The 718
BannedbyNYYFans.com said:
And by "close" I mean he was my fantasy football kicker for like five years in a row at one point.  
Mine too. Nobody better from 50+ yards.

On phone so no link, but there was a Grantland piece re: how popular and respected he was in the locker room, with great quotes fr position players. Now I know no one wants to speak ill of the recent dead, but since position players usually rank kickers somewhat below toe fungus, it was worth noting.

There had to be a major problem here - my guess is that the autopsy reveals some kind of brain issue affecting behavior (a WAG based on seeing something similar in a guy I know).
 

wade boggs chicken dinner

Member
SoSH Member
Mar 26, 2005
30,482
not enough valium?
His wife said that he hadn't been drinking ("one beer" is what I've seen), said goodnight at 10:30, and then by 11:00 p.m. he has a .218 BAC?

And didn't she say that they had been watching a movie?

Something doesn't add up.
 

Average Reds

Member
SoSH Member
Sep 24, 2007
35,330
Southwestern CT
wade boggs chicken dinner said:
His wife said that he hadn't been drinking ("one beer" is what I've seen), said goodnight at 10:30, and then by 11:00 p.m. he has a .218 BAC?

And didn't she say that they had been watching a movie?

Something doesn't add up.
 
Rachel Bradshaw's story - that Bironus only had one beer before he went to bed and that nothing seemed out of the ordinary - is what doesn't add up.
 
You are not drunk with a .218 BAC; you are obliterated.  This is completely at odds with the picture being painted by Bironus' wife.  The other part that doesn't add up is that missing persons report.  She called it in minutes after he left the house and that's just not normal behavior unless you know the person you are calling about is out of control.
 
According to Bironus' father, he has yet to speak with Rachel Bradshaw about the events of that night.  Bradshaw is apparently in seclusion in Texas and speaking to no one.
 
http://www.tennessean.com/story/sports/nfl/2014/10/03/rob-bironas-tennessee-titans-toxicology-report/16664189/
 
Dec 10, 2012
6,943
post-nuptial depression. Rob couldnt; control his rage, and Rachel perhaps wrongly feels some responsibility.  In any case, I don't think it's fair to her to say it doesnt' add up.
 

Average Reds

Member
SoSH Member
Sep 24, 2007
35,330
Southwestern CT
Dan to Theo to Ben said:
post-nuptial depression. Rob couldnt; control his rage, and Rachel perhaps wrongly feels some responsibility.  In any case, I don't think it's fair to her to say it doesnt' add up.
 
She reported he had one beer and that everything was normal.  We now know he had the equivalent of 10 to 12 drinks in the hour before he died to get there.  (Or much more if he had been drinking over a long period of time.)  We also know that she called in a missing persons report within minutes of his leaving the house, which you just don't do under normal circumstances.
 
If this isn't the very definition of her story not adding up, I'd like to know what would be.
 

Devizier

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 3, 2000
19,463
Somewhere
Back of the envelope calculation but that BAC for a man Bironas' size would be equivalent to throwing down a half liter of hard liquor in less than an hour. Not your average night of drinking.
 

HomeRunBaker

bet squelcher
SoSH Member
Jan 15, 2004
30,096
Dan to Theo to Ben said:
post-nuptial depression. Rob couldnt; control his rage, and Rachel perhaps wrongly feels some responsibility.  In any case, I don't think it's fair to her to say it doesnt' add up.
You are both correct. No, her story doesn't add up. Yes, she clearly feels some level of responsibility and wasn't acting/responding rationally when making that comment.

It would be more startling if she WAS rational after hearing her new husband just died in a car wreck.
 

wade boggs chicken dinner

Member
SoSH Member
Mar 26, 2005
30,482
Back of the envelope calculation but that BAC for a man Bironas' size would be equivalent to throwing down a half liter of hard liquor in less than an hour. Not your average night of drinking.
Maybe I'm wrong about this, but even if he chugged a bottle of Jack Daniels, I don't think your body could absorb alcohol fast enough to get to a .218 thirty minutes after doing so.
 

bakahump

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Jan 8, 2001
7,518
Maine
If I recall the 911 call correctly she was amazingly composed.
 
I thought it odd at the time for the fact that she was so calm about it.  I thought that was odd.
 
Now knowing that his BAC was so high and she called so soon after he left it seems even odder.  IMHO she couldnt have known he was so hammered.  It just doesnt fit with her demeanor.
 
If my wife had been drinking all day and was "out of control" when I called to report her (assuming I would want to....knowing that if the police did intervene there would be serious legal repercussions), I think I would be way more "Frenzied/worried/hysterical".
 
I thought that she sounded kinda ....perplexed.  Which would fit with the narrative that she had no idea what was going on.
 
If thats at least plausible....then how does a man show up so intoxicated that he tries to run people off the road and winds up dead?
 
Not an expert on alcoholics....but dont they drink in private to avoid the stigma. Which could explain "...but he only had one beer" (maybe he had a bunch that she didnt see...)  And dont they often  not show any effects (or at least minimal effects) of the alcohol until his BAC was totally whacked and he "goes over the edge" (of becoming inebriated) ?  That COULD explain the "he seemed fine....wasnt mad....said he was going to bed....and now isnt here..."  Yet shows up on the roads as a maniac.