Generally speaking, I don’t make a ton of posts about the mid level pickups of teams not based in Baltimore(or at least in the AFC North), but today i am making an exception. I make an exception because This is Brian Banks.
Today Brian Banks was signed to a contract by the Atlanta Falcons. I you havent heard Brian Banks story, you need to go read it. Banks is a very very impressive young man. Banks was convicted of Kidnapping and Raping a young girl that attended high school with him. After serving his time in prison, Banks was released under 24 hour ankle monitor surveillance. The girl he was convicted of raping eventually contacted him through facebook, he immediately contacted the California innocence project and later acquired a confession that she had fabricated the rape story. Banks was exonerated of all charges. There is much more to the story than that, and it is truely amazing, but that is the gist of it.
Banks was a highly recruited LB who had a verbal commit to attend USC before his conviction. Since being exonerated, he has been trying to make his NFL dream finally come true, and now, thanks the Atlanta Falcons(and a ton of hard work by Banks of course), he has finally made it. Banks has a solid shot of making the roster. I couldn’t be happier for him. He has been dealt a pretty crappy hand through no fault of his own, and thanks to his level head and incredible resolve, he is now an NFL player.