Robert Gallery’s time with the Seattle Seahawks was brief — just one injury-marred season in 2011 — but the experience would later become a reference point for how far the former No. 2 overall pick fell, and how far he’s since come back.
A new feature in The Athletic by Dan Pompei reveals the staggering depth of Gallery’s post-football struggles: suicidal thoughts, heavy drinking, fits of rage and confusion, and a desperate search for identity once his body and career finally gave out.
Robert Gallery: From Iowa Star to NFL Cautionary Tale
Gallery was once considered the safest pick in the 2004 NFL Draft. A decorated All-American at Iowa, he won the Outland Trophy as the nation’s top lineman and was widely projected to anchor an offensive line for more than a decade. The Oakland Raiders selected him second overall, expecting a future Pro Bowler.
Instead, Gallery endured constant change and chaos — five head coaches in seven seasons, multiple position switches, and a revolving door of quarterbacks. His move to left guard under Tom Cable finally stabilized his play, but injuries piled up.
When Cable joined Pete Carroll’s Seahawks in 2011, Gallery followed him to Seattle, hopeful for a fresh start. He joined a locker room featuring Marshawn Lynch and a rising defensive core that would soon form the Legion of Boom. For the first time, Gallery later said, he saw an organization doing things “the right way.”
But his body was failing him. He tore his MCL in the preseason, played through a torn abdominal muscle, and needed surgery at season’s end. The Seahawks released him after just one year. He briefly signed with New England before realizing he couldn’t go on.
“I had nothing left,” Gallery told The Athletic. “It was over.”
A Descent Into Darkness
Retirement was not peace — it was torment. Gallery told The Athletic that he suffered intense ringing in his ears, foggy memory, and unexplained anger. At his lowest, he drove his motorcycle 90 miles per hour through mountain curves near Lake Tahoe and admitted thinking about stepping in front of a semi-truck.
“I just wanted the noise to stop,” he told The Athletic.
Alcohol became a crutch. He’d drink tequila until he couldn’t feel. He lashed out at home, yelling at his wife, Becca, and their children, then retreating into guilt and isolation. Old teammates reached out, but for nearly a decade he ignored them.
“I felt like the worst scum on the face of the earth,” Gallery said to The Athletic. “You want to hurt someone you love — that messes with you even more.”
Asking for Help
The turning point came during a workout with Becca when he broke down and told her the truth: he was suicidal. Encouraged by her and longtime friend James Hetfield of Metallica, Gallery sought help through veteran mental-health networks.
He eventually connected with former Navy SEAL Marcus Capone, whose organization VETS Foundation helps veterans seek alternative treatments for trauma. Gallery underwent psychedelic therapy in Mexico using Ibogaine and 5-MeO-DMT — treatments illegal in the U.S. but showing promise in addressing brain injury and PTSD.
After years of depression and cognitive fog, Gallery described waking up from the session clear-headed, hearing the waves of the Pacific and feeling peace for the first time in years. “I’m back,” he told friends afterward.
Healing and a New Mission
Now 45, Gallery still lives near Lake Tahoe and follows a strict daily routine — cold plunges at 4 a.m., meditation, workouts with Becca, and hyperbaric-chamber recovery. He says he hasn’t had a drink in four years and no longer experiences suicidal thoughts.
His new focus is helping others. He founded Athletes for Care, a nonprofit supporting retired players struggling with mental health and exploring responsible psychedelic therapy. Several former NFL and college teammates have since followed him to treatment.
For Gallery, that purpose — and the stability of family — has replaced the roar of the Coliseum or CenturyLink Field. He still thinks about the career that could’ve been, but he’s finally found something football couldn’t give him: quiet.
“I’m not healed,” he told The Athletic. “I have brain damage, but I’m light-years ahead of where I was.”
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