Maxx Crosby thanks his wife, Rachel Washburn, for helping him become a "stronger" version of himself.

The 27-year-old Las Vegas Raider will be five years sober in March, and he tells PEOPLE during a conversation at the SiriusXM set at Media Row in New Orleans ahead of the Super Bowl LIX, and it was his "partner in crime" who helped him through the darker days.

"She’s my rock," says Crosby. "I wouldn’t be here without her."

The Michigan native — who was drafted to the Raiders in 2019 when they were still in Oakland — married Washburn, a collegiate soccer player at Eastern Michigan University when they met, during a lavish Nevada wedding in Boulder City on March 4, 2023.

They share a 2-year-old daughter, Ella, who Crosby says is his "world."

Related: Who Is Maxx Crosby's Wife? All About Rachel Crosby

Crosby thanks his wife for her support in his sobriety, which the defensive end says he "wouldn't be in this position" or "here in general" without. "I was living a wild life, a fast life and addiction is real. It’s a disease, something that was very hard on me but at the end of the day, you always hear people say you can’t change, people don’t change they are who they are I so firmly believe that’s so false."

"You've got to be able to go through some hard times if you really want it," Crosby continues. "If you really want to be together, you've got to go through hell and back, and we’ve both been through a lot together but it only made us stronger."

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The longtime Raiders player recalls that he "had to go to a dark place" and "live through that" in order to emerge stronger from those dark days. "It made me so much stronger and it made me a better person," he shares.

"I love the person I am, and the person I look in the mirror and see now, and I wasn't able to say that when I was younger going through what I went through, and that means more than anything," he continues.

Related: Las Vegas Raiders' Maxx Crosby Marries Rachel Washburn in Romantic Nevada Ceremony

Crosby also says being "able to raise [his] daughter" alongside Washburn "means the world" to him. "Being the best version of myself on and off the field is literally everything," he adds.

And now that he's a stronger version of himself, Crosby was excited to help his favorite underwear brand SAXX select college football players to join the brand's Gamechanger ambassador program.

Crosby was especially excited to introduce the brand to Ashton Jeanty, of his alma mater Eastern State University, who Crosby calls a lock to be selected in the first round of the NFL draft.

"They support what I believe in," Crosby says of SAXX's company values, not to mention they've "got the best underwear in the game," he adds.

Read the original article on People