Maxx Crosby is Ready to Win

Inside his Las Vegas life, on and off the field

By Melinda Sheckells / Photos by Louiie Victa

Las Vegas Raiders defensive end, Maxx Crosby, is gearing up for an unforgettable 2025 season. He recently sat down with The Town at Eight Lounge inside Resorts World to talk about his love of the city, his family and share what’s in his playbook on how he’s planning to “just win, baby.”

What has Las Vegas been like for you as a football player, for you and your wife as a couple, and as a family?

It has been phenomenal. I love it. We all love it. We’ve truly made it our home. We’re building a beautiful house in Summerlin. I grew up in Michigan. [I’ve] moved to Texas and lived in Cali during my rookie year, but it feels like home here. The community has embraced us. It is an opportunity to bring a championship here and get results in the community. It has been my mission.

How has this off-season been for you?

Training camp starts in July. I started in December with my [injury] rehab. So it hasn’t stopped. I feel incredible. I’m healthy. Back 100 percent. It has been a journey, doing another rehab again, which can get tough, especially mentally more than anything. But having the right people around me all the time—that’s more important than damn near anything, especially when times are hard. I don’t live a normal life. I have to be dialed in and focused at an obsession-type level. And that’s where I’m at in my life. I give everything to my craft and find ways to improve and help us ultimately win a championship. That’s all that’s on my mind.

What are your upcoming plans for the Maxx Crosby Foundation?

Our main goals are directly tied to things that have affected my life. I’ve always been super passionate about dogs and pit bulls. I have three rescues. We wanted to find a way to maximize my platform, to give back and help as many dogs as possible. I look at myself as a pit bull in human form. They’re the underdogs and they always get a bad rap. They are some of the best dogs and they’re misunderstood, so I relate to them.

You also have a big commitment to your sobriety and recovery?

I just celebrated my fifth year. And it has been an incredible journey so far. It’s nothing short of a blessing but I look at it as an opportunity as well, to give back and to help kids going through what I went through. I was a teenager and a young adult, dealing with my addiction, and nobody knew what I was going through. It’s a disease. Unfortunately, it’s something that runs deep in my family and I knew since the day I took my first drink, I was obsessed and in love with it. That has been one of the hardest battles but it’s also been one of the most freeing things on the planet, because I know I have the willpower to be sober in a city like Las Vegas. Giving back helps me with my sobriety, helping kids out, showing them the way and showing them that [they’re] not alone. For me, I felt like I was alone for a long, long time, and I was lost, and I would just rely on a drink to make me happy and ultimately, it would lead to me being depressed and not happy with myself. It’s still an everyday battle. I take more pride in that than literally anything.

How is the foundation contributing to that mission?

We’re creating scholarships for kids to get into rehab, sober living. I also want to be in the community, not just writing a check but connecting with the youth. I feel so many people have impacted me but I’ve also had the opportunity to impact them and show them, like, ”listen, you’re not alone.” And that to me—that’s the biggest flex.

People talk about football, [how] it’s my life, it’s my obsession, it’s my passion, but [so is] being able to help kids. You hear about somebody who has alcoholism and everyone’s like, “stay away from that.” But for me, when I got into rehab, I realized I’m not the only one and my rehab experience, my sober living experience, was one of the best times of my life. I was in there with some extremely successful people. It’s a one-day-at-a-time mindset, peeling back the onion and realizing the deep root of all the issues. I’m a constant work in progress.

How are your wife Rachel and your daughter loving Las Vegas?

My family is everything: my two girls, my dogs. We have a pack. Rachel has been along for the whole journey. She was with me before I made any plays or did anything in college. I was just a kid trying to figure it out with a dream of what I wanted, all the things I’m doing now, in a little apartment with a mattress on the floor. She believed in me when nobody else did and always has my back. That’s a relationship I could talk about all day. She saw me at the worst of my addiction and she still believed in me, and I didn’t even see it. My daughter is my best friend, my little princess. She’s two and a half now. Me and Rachel are both hyper competitive and obsessive about what we want to get done. Our whole house is up at five every day, ready to go and I love that.

Eight Lounge has become your clubhouse, right? How did you and [owner] Giuseppe Bravo become friends?

We are extremely close. I love that guy to death and we have a lot of similar things that we’re aligned with. He’s huge on pit bull rescue. And we connected right off the bat. I love cigars. I found Eight Lounge and Giuseppe, and it felt like home immediately. He’s one of the best people I know. We’re family for life. We’re going to do many great things in the community together.

What is your mindset going into this season?

I’ve had a lot of changes in the last few years. I’ve had four head coaches in four years. God puts you in certain positions for a reason and I’m built for it. Even when it’s at the lowest of lows, it can always get worse. I’ve been in a rehab facility, I’ve had $0 to my name. I have been in a leadership position and have been a captain for the last four years. I was never a captain in high school or college because I wasn’t the leader off the field. And now I’ve got a lot of young guys coming to Vegas, kids with money for the first time. It’s incredible when you first get here. There’s a lot of flash and “oh my God, I’m in the NFL” but it is a very short window, and I want guys to maximize their careers. That means more to me than anything.

As the team leader, what do you take the most pride in?

I’m here for a reason. I’m meant to be in this position because we’ve been through a lot of turmoil and hardships. When we win, it will mean even more. That’s why when I hear all the trade rumors and “Maxx needs to leave,” and hearing other guys around the league, or former players [and] Hall of Famers, say that “Maxx needs to get out of Vegas, he’s wasting his career,” I’m like, “that’s what you think, but you don’t understand what I do every day.” [They] don’t know how much this organization means to me, and when we win, it will be even that much sweeter.