If you have been following the Brian Banks story it is one of those things that makes you extremely mad and very happy. You hate the world. You love the world. All at the same time. Brian was a high school football star out of Long Beach. Heavily recruited and had verbally committed to USC his junior year. Everything was put on hold when he was accussed of rape and kidnapping. He went to jail for 5 years. But guess what? He was innocent. 5 years of life taken from him. He hadn’t played football in 10 years but managed to get some NFL tryouts but didn’t make a roster.
Well, the 27 year old is getting another chance this upcoming season as he has been signed by the Atlanta Falcons. From ESPN:
“We are pleased to have Brian join our team,” Falcons general manager Thomas Dimitroff said in a statement. “We had a chance to work him out last year and have been monitoring his progress since then. He has worked extremely hard for this chance over the last year and he has shown us that he is prepared for this opportunity. We are happy that Brian will have a chance to live out his dream of playing in the NFL and we look forward to seeing him on the field.”
We’ll obviously be watching this one closely and hope that he has nothing but success moving forward.
For more details on the Brian Banks story watch this great segment from 60 Minutes. Worth the watch: