Rob Bironas' family wants answers
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The last image family members have of Rob Bironas was taken less than two hours before his death, courtesy of an iPhone video filmed from inside his home.
He was holding a doll, made by his grandmother. As a scary movie played in the background, Bironas, wearing a T-shirt and shorts, held the doll and entertained his audience. He was smiling and laughing. So was his wife, whose voice could be heard in the background.
"That is typical Rob right there," said Anne Bironas, his mother. "He was joking around and was happy."
On Monday, the Bironas family sat around the same kitchen table where they'd all gathered here last month, during a time of celebration. Things are much different now. The son, and brother, who became famous kicking field goals for the Tennessee Titans is no longer with them. He lost his life in a one-vehicle accident in Nashville on Sept. 20.
In the nine days since then, they've struggled to come to grips with the tragedy, and the mystery that surrounds his death. Accusations of Bironas confronting other motorists in separate road rage incidents in the 30 minutes before his fatal accident don't make sense to any of them. On Monday, they showed the video to a reporter with The Tennessean during a three-hour visit to the home of brother Greg Bironas.
They also went through family pictures and showed off memorabilia collected during his life. Rob Bironas was 36.
"We're doing bad," father Larry Bironas said. "It's hard. It hurts. We're pretty good at peace, but we have questions. We just want answers. Even if they are bad answers, we just want answers.
"If he were in that state of mind, why? And that's what we want to know. I am not being a father sitting here saying, 'My son wouldn't do that.' Things happen every day you don't expect. Our question is if anything close to that happened (the night of his death), why? What led up to it? What created that? The video an hour-and-a-half before that shows everything's good. He's happy. He's not stumbling, he is not slurring his speech. So what happened?"
On Thursday, the family gathered to bury Bironas in Nashville, his home during his nine seasons (2005-2013) with the Titans. It's where he'd planned on living with his newlywed wife, Rachel Bradshaw, even though his roots are deep in Kentucky.
Five days earlier, the white SUV Bironas had been driving went off the road and turned upside down on Battery Lane, not far from his Nashville home. Larry Bironas said he looked at the crash scene with investigators a few days later and concluded the tire marks showed his son had his hands on the steering wheel and was "fighting it" to keep the vehicle from going off the road.
The medical examiner told Larry Bironas his son died as a result of a broken neck.
The struggle to begin healing
As the family told stories about Rob Bironas on Monday, their emotions were all over the map.
Younger brothers Greg and Blake were wearing light-blue wristbands honoring their brother. Older sister Mitzi Stevens joined the conversation via Skype, holding her 10-month-old son, Sam. At times, tears welled up in the eyes of Larry Bironas. Anne Bironas, known for her bubbly personality, told countless stories about her son growing up and his accomplishments, tales that brought smiles to everyone.
Then she told a painful one about the night she got the call her son had died. She'd been up late, on Facebook, when the first calls came in about him being missing earlier in the night.
"I said, 'Please don't tell me it's the worst,' " she recalled. "We scream, we yell, we curse. And (Larry) has to stop me."
It's a family that's grieving and struggling to begin the healing process.
"It's hard to be at complete peace with so many unanswered questions," said Stevens, who lives in Brentwood. "There's a lot of things about it that don't make sense."
911 calls add to mystery
The night after Bironas died, the family gathered at the crash site, huddled and said a prayer. The moment provided a bit of closure.
The next day, a 911 call from a woman surfaced claiming Bironas had tried to run her vehicle off the road just before he crashed his SUV. The woman described an emotional and confrontational man. The next day, two Belmont students told The Tennessean they also encountered Bironas in a fit of rage that evening and that he threatened to kill them and sideswipe their truck.
Conflicting stories also emerged last week from Bradshaw during her calls to police, which raised questions about what happened inside the couple's home the night of the accident. Bradshaw told police she thought he had gone to bed and did not know he left the house. She told police he went to bed at 9:40 p.m. but later said it was 10:30.
The family is suspicious about the 911 calls from the motorists. All agreed the picture painted of Bironas that evening is different from anything they ever witnessed.
"That's completely out of Rob's character," said Blake Bironas, who at 33 is the kid of the family. He closely resembles his big brother.
Bironas was 'anti-drugs'
Larry Bironas said his son didn't do drugs, and he made it a practice not to drive impaired by alcohol. He suspects the toxicology report will come back showing the former Titans kicker had alcohol in his system, "but we are hoping it doesn't come back heavy." The toxicology report is expected to be completed within a week.
"He didn't want to be on the front pages," he said. "(In the video) he's not in a stupor. He's joking around. That gives us peace of mind that at least it wasn't like he was sitting around boozing it up the whole night. I am sure he had a couple of glasses of wine, but I don't even know that."
Larry Bironas said he asked the medical examiner for "an expanded analysis" on his son's toxicology report.
"If there is much (alcohol) there, I am really upset. Drugs, we don't look for that to be there. He was very anti-drugs, stimulants, that kind of thing," he said. "It almost comes across as a psychotic problem; if there was a problem, of course we're interested in it. If he got in that car and drove inebriated, of course I have a problem with that. But in his normal state of mind he would not get in a car and drive. He was good at that."
The family said Bironas didn't have a history of taking Ambien, a sleep-promoting medication with sometimes disturbing side effects.
"Supposedly, he was going to bed. What if he took an Ambien, was going to bed and then decided he was going to go out and get something?" Larry Bironas said. "It doesn't make sense, but we won't know until we get the report. ... If there's something there that could be hereditary or if there's a brain tumor, we want to know."
The family said it's not as concerned about what happened inside the couple's home that evening. Even if there had been an argument, it didn't explain the behavior described by motorists. Rob Bironas and Rachel Bradshaw married in June. A friend of the couple's also was at the home when Bradshaw made her 911 call.
"If something did happen, it is still not Rob that he would go out and do that. It is their business, and at the same time, we don't see any big scene there. There is no running out of the car, slamming the door or anything like that. It does not appear there is any emotion there," Larry Bironas said.
"Whatever happened at the house happened at the house."
'We miss him'
While family members await answers, they'll continue to talk about the good times — the family trips, all the sporting events, all the Titans games. They've spent the past week reminiscing with friends. Even his first game as a kicker in high school, which ended after five seconds and a trip to the emergency room because of an injured shoulder after making a tackle, provides them some humor. They all recall Bironas as a loyal son, brother and a loving father.
The hardest part is knowing even when some answers come, they won't provide what they want most.
"The support has been overwhelming. Everyone has a story about Rob," Larry Bironas said. "But we miss him, and we're always going to miss him."
Reach Jim Wyatt at 259-8015 and on Twitter @jwyattsports.