The National Football League has employed its share of criminals. Football players get arrested at such a high rate, that NBC’s ProFootballTalk keeps a ‘Days Without Arrest’ count on its homepage. To be honest, I have never seen it go over a month, without some player in legal trouble. We have seen players go from a jail cell to hitting the field and right now some former pro athletes sit behind bars.
Many people would argue that the American criminal justice system is flawed. Run-ins with the law can send careers and lives completely down the drain. For some, there is no light at the end of the tunnel; this is not the case for Atlanta Falcons’ rookie line backer, Brian Banks. Now, as his NFL career begins, Banks finally puts a ten year nightmare to rest.
Brian Banks was an outstanding high school football player at Polytechnic High School, a powerhouse that breeds NFL athletes, in Long Beach, California. During his high school career, he played alongside DeSean Jackson, Darnell Bing, Winston Justice and Marcedes Lewis. Banks’s NFL dream was slowly becoming a reality, he was listed as one of Rivals.com’s “juniors to watch” and verbally committed to go play football at USC under Pete Carroll, who is now head coach and executive vice president of the Seattle Seahawks.
Unfortunately, Banks had his dream stolen from him and was forced to sit on the sidelines. He put his dreams away and faced the harsh reality that he might never set foot on the field again and that the only yard he would see, would be in a cage. In the summer of 2002, a classmate of Banks and long term friend accused him of rape, which led to him getting kicked out of Polytech and led to his arrest. He was staring down a 41 year to life sentence and decided to take a plea deal. Banks took the deal, which was five years in prison, five years on parole and registering as a sex offender.
His accuser, Wanetta Gibson, sued the Long Beach Unified School District, saying that the campus was not safe and won $1.5 million. In March of 2011, Gibson contacted Banks and they had a meeting. During that meeting, Gibson confessed to Banks that she in fact did fabricate the story. While confessing to the fabricated rape, Banks secretly recorded her confession. This confession on tape helped Banks’s defense team to persuade the Los Angeles County prosecutors to overturn Banks’s conviction and exonerate him.
Courtesy: Yahoo Sports
The ten year nightmare was over and Banks’s life finally resumed in the summer of 2012. A few days after being exonerated, Coach Carroll called him up, looking for a linebacker and gave Banks a shot to work out and try out for the Seattle Seahawks. On September 20, 2012 Banks signed with the Las Vegas Locomotives of the UFL and his professional career was finally underway. He played in two games before the league was suspended and had one tackle. Banks is the definition of a ‘true fighter’. He just recently turned 28 and still fighting for his NFL dream. On April 3, 2013 Banks received another professional opportunity and signed with the Atlanta Falcons. He has participate in offseason work outs and in training camp fighting for roster spot, something I believe he will achieve as the season gets closer.
During an interview with 60 minutes, Banks told James Brown, “If it doesn’t happen it doesn’t define me. If it does happen it doesn’t define me. Regardless of how things end, I’m good. I’ve already won”. We should all take a lesson from the humble Brian Banks. He has showed us that you should not take things for granted, that you never give up on your dreams and you fight until the end. Brian Banks, I wish you the best of luck and could not be happier that you are a free man on the verge of completing your dream.
