But Hicks has also experienced the difficulties that so many black men in America face every day. In the wake of George Floyd's death at the hands of police in the streets of Minneapolis on May 25 and the large protests against racial injustice and police brutality that followed, Hicks has found himself reflecting back to the days before his rise in the NFL.
"I feel like I've been censored my whole life," Hicks said on a teleconference Wednesday. "So, for me to feel like I have to keep people at ease to make sure there's a calm while I'm in the room, those are natural things to me. And these things were taught to me in a way, right?
"At an early age, being not just a larger kid, a larger black kid, I was seen as the antagonist in a lot of situations. I was seen as the bully. I was seen as the person -- just not in the best light, right? Developing my mindset going forward, I understood that I had to always make people feel comfortable before myself."
Hicks struggled to hold back his emotions as the words continued.
"And," Hicks said with a great pause, "I'm going to continue to do that. I'm going to continue to make sure people feel comfortable around me. Is it unfortunate that I have to live that way? Call it what you want. But I do it because that's how I'm able to move through society and have people feel OK with me."
In a virtual meeting Monday, Bears coach Matt Nagy opened a conversation with 139 members of the team -- it included players, coaches and executives -- and nearly 50 spoke while countless stories were shared. The virtual discussion lasted the entirety of the team's allotted two hours, as part of the offseason program schedule.
"It costs nothing to love one another and it costs nothing to care for one another," Bears linebacker Danny Trevathan said. "We can't keep ignoring stuff and putting it under the table. We have to be mad about it and deal with it and actually take actions without fearing the repercussions of stuff. The repercussions are that we are still in it. We have to take action, man. I feel like we are doing the right things."
"The biggest thing is a group of people being past the threshold of just sitting back, being calm," Robinson said. "I think that a lot more positive has come out of this than negative.
"There’s a lot of knowledge being spread and a lot of people opening their eyes and ears now to the things that are going on who may not have before."
The protests occurring in America have brought the NFL back to 2016, when then-49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick took a knee on stadium sidelines during the national anthem in protest of racial inequality and police brutality. Kaepernick lacked public support from most of his peers and hasn't been on a roster in the three years since.
Hicks has since encountered many NFL players who wish they would've done more to help support Kaepernick.
"It’s unfortunate that a young man had to sacrifice his career to bring attention and light to it," Hicks said. "And now, in talking to a lot of players across the league, there are several guys I have talked to who feel they would have done something different, that they wish they would have done something different at the time, that they wish they would have been more supportive. And for fear of whether it was their job or fear of blackballing themselves as that did happen to Kaepernick, a lot of people didn’t stand up with him, myself included."
Recently, Trevathan has found himself thinking to his own rise in the NFL. He was a sixth-round of the Broncos in 2012 who won a Super Bowl with Denver and is now considered one of the most prominent voices in the Bears' locker room.
But Trevathan believes that he has kept his voice too silent on issues outside of football. He plans to be more vocal.
"This is just life situations we are talking about," Trevathan said. "Just to be feared, to have that fear in you about being pulled over or being comfortable or being yourself. That's not cool. That's inhumane. We all deserve the right to be comfortable. We all deserve the right to feel like we are protected instead of being looked at as bad creatures. I think we focus so much on differences, we don't focus on similarities. That's where we fail as humans, where we fail as people."
The question that followed these difficult conversations was simple.
"How can we do our part?" Robinson said. "That's what the next step is. Everybody can talk about it now. For us as a family and a group, trying to create our own way how we can impact, how we can cause change, individually and as a group."
The Bears plan to use their social justice committee to enact change in Chicago communities, and the team has relationships with local organizations through multiple charitable arms. Robinson has used his Within Reach Foundation to contribute locally.
These difficult conversations will continue moving forward, well beyond the death of Floyd and an uncomfortable team meeting. Players like Hicks have found their voice and hope to use it for good.
"Everything is clear now," Hicks said.