Eastern Michigan names stadium after Raiders DE and his wife following major donation

Maxx Crosby and Rachel Crosby.

Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby and his wife, former Eastern Michigan soccer player Rachel Crosby, were honored recently by Eastern Michigan, which renamed the former Rynearson Stadium after them.

Eastern Michigan officially unveiled Crosby Field on Friday evening after the stadium, which opened in 1969, underwent renovations. According to Hustle Belt's Steve Helwick, the Crosbys contributed $1 million "as chief donators of the project."

Maxx played defensive end at Eastern Michigan from 2016-18, finishing his college career with 20 sacks and eight forced fumbles. Meanwhile, Rachel was a defender for the women's soccer team from 2013-16 and finished her career with 14 total points, including 12 assists.

The biggest change to Crosby Field is removing the Olympic-sized track that circled the field.

Helwick noted that a sizable portion of the $5.5 million in donations used in renovations was for constructing an outdoor track and field complex to give the two sports separate homes.

Since leaving Eastern Michigan, Maxx has become one of the NFL's best edge-rushers. In 2023, he had 14.5 sacks and led the league in tackles for loss (23). He finished fourth in the Associated Press Defensive Player of the Year voting.

Per Stathead, he's already one of the greatest professional football players to come out of Eastern Michigan. Only guard T.J. Lang, defensive end Dave Pureifory and tackle L.J. Shelton have a higher Approximate Value than Crosby, who's only played five NFL seasons.

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