By Blessing 
Amik Robertson’s Raw Journey Through Las Vegas Struggles
Amik Robertson, now a beloved Detroit Lions cornerback, is admired for his relentless energy and tough-as-nails style. But on a recent St. Brown Bros. podcast episode, he opened up about the rocky road he faced as a young Las Vegas Raider, revealing a side fans rarely see.
Life in Sin City hit Robertson hard. Transitioning from a college star to an NFL rookie was tougher than expected.
“I don’t really gamble,” he shared, as quoted by Lions OnSI. “Before, I was partying, I’m going to be honest. I was doing that my first two years. I was doing that a lot. But, it’s the reason why I was doing that, too. I don’t want to go in too deep. Vegas was tough.”
Drafted as an outside corner, Robertson was thrown into the unfamiliar nickel role.
“I come in, I get drafted. Everybody loves me. Then they move me to nickel. Never played that in my life,” he said. “That s**t was like Chinese. They just threw me in the water to play nickel. I didn’t even understand nickel.”
The COVID-19 pandemic made it worse, stripping away OTAs and hands-on coaching.
“We didn’t have OTAs,” he recalled. “We didn’t have because of COVID, we didn’t have none of that. So, I had to learn from the iPad.”
Feeling isolated, Robertson sought solace in Vegas nightlife. “It’s like going to the clubs, around all these people, I feel love,” he admitted.
But he eventually rediscovered his true self, leaving that life behind. Now thriving in Detroit, he’s proof that even the strongest fighters face personal battles worth overcoming.