In 2002, football player Brian Banks was sent to prison after being wrongfully accused of rape by a high school acquaintance named Wanetta Gibson. He spent five years in prison, but was later exonerated in 2012 after Gibson recanted her statement and admitted that she had fabricated the entire incident.
Now a free man, Banks is making the rounds to promote a movie detailing these incidents that will be released on Friday. During an appearance on NFL Network’s Good Morning Football, Banks detailed his journey back to football and his later attempts to land a spot in the NFL. He didn’t stick with any teams after multiple tryouts, but Banks was able to briefly fulfill his dreams during a preseason game with the Atlanta Falcons.
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“Absolutely, one of the greatest moments and achievements in my life,” Banks said on Wednesday. “That was dreams restored. You know football was a dream that was taken away from me. It was a dream that I literally had to let go of when I was sitting in a cell, just rotting away for years and years and years. I couldn’t sit there and think about football after what I went through, knowing more than likely that it wouldn’t be a possibility in my future.”
.@BrianBanksFREE – who has a movie based on his story coming out this Friday – told us what it was like having to give up his dream of playing in the NFL.
But more importantly, what it was like getting it back. pic.twitter.com/Kb8ViYxlJU
— GMFB (@gmfb) August 7, 2019
However, that possibility changed when the Atlanta Falcons added Banks to the roster in April 2013. He spent the preseason with the team, appearing in all four preseason games before ultimately being cut in late August. While his career didn’t last particularly long, Banks will never forget the moment that he stepped out onto the field in a Falcons uniform.
“But being able to walk out on the field with my team, the Falcons. The camaraderie, the brotherhood, everybody patting you on the back and telling you this is your moment, this is your time. The smoke and the flames in the air as you run out, I mean, just the whole feeling itself was just, ‘I made it, I did it.’”
While Banks hasn’t been able to play in the NFL, that hasn’t prevented him from making a difference in the world. He has since supported the California Innocence Project, who originally helped him in 2012, and attempted to assist others that have also potentially been falsely accused.
