If I can be some kind of vessel to show people that, no matter the hard time you experienced, you can still succeed, I want to put out that positive energy to never quit and never give up.
Brian Banks
It's not what you go through, but how that experience affects you. For some people, it could be a near car crash that changes your life. For other people, it could take five years of going to prison for them to realize they need change in their life. So it's not really the experience but more how the experience affects you.
When we look at our justice system, we have this image of a balancing scale: truth and justice, right and wrong. But for years, our system has been lopsided, where it's not about truth and justice or balance. It's about being tough on crime, and sometimes that means you're putting the wrong person behind bars.
There was a time when I had nothing. I lost everything.
I want to be in a better position than what I was yesterday. The only way that can happen is by eliminating any negative ill will or feelings toward anyone.
There's just so much I want to do in life. Part of that is to use my story and use my experiences to give back to other people.
Wrongful convictions need to be addressed in America. There are a lot of Brian Banks behind bars right now.
Football is just one part of me. It's not the be-all, end all.
After five years in prison, five years on parole, and a total of 10 years of being in hell, I can look back on it all and say I played in four NFL games. It's incredible.
I set my heart out to prove my innocence by any means necessary.
You can do nothing, or you can take on the challenge of taking on the adversity. You have got to have faith. You have to have faith in whatever you believe in.
To be stripped of your freedom, to be stripped of your dignity and the respect you once had, to lose it all and then see life pass you by while you're sitting inside a prison cell, to wake up one day and get it all back - it's a very humbling feeling.
I've had the opportunity to see both sides of the human spirit. I've seen those who will put you down, demean you, brand you, and have a one-track mind of destruction. But I've also seen people who uplift you. I've been on a journey unlike any others.
I will exhaust every opportunity there is in football.
There are many innocent people in prison.
You have to realize that myself and others that have been wrongfully convicted of crimes, we've dealt with the situation. You realize that you're not going to survive in prison or progress as a human being if you allow yourself to continue to hold on to this negative energy.
All the negativity that was once around me has turned into all this positivity.
I studied and grew as a man so that the situation of being wrongly accused wouldn't define me.
The physical aspects of the game, it's probably the highlight for me. It's a way for me to get a lot of anger and stress off of my shoulders.
Just to be on the sideline and to hear all the veterans tell you, 'Man, when your turn comes, when they call your number, just play.' Just the support and love from everybody is more than I can ask for.
For me, I just want to be positive.
I think of my mother constantly. And how she sacrificed her home and car for my freedom.
I had a good upbringing.
The biggest thing you must remember is the mindset you have - what were the initial things you said to yourself as a young kid? Everything you said, that's who you are.
If the NFL is going to be responsible for what someone is doing in their personal life, there may need to be preventative work early against the incidents that are happening.
People ask, 'Do I have trust issues?' I wouldn't say I have trust issues. I have trust concerns. It's valuable for me to trust a person in particular.
I can hold on to that, that bitterness and that anger. It won't get me anywhere.
To make a 53-man roster would be a huge accomplishment - right up there with getting exonerated for a crime I didn't commit.
I have to share my story. Not for me, but for the people who might go through the same thing and for juveniles who have gotten in trouble.
I feel my situation is no different from anybody else's experiences.
If my story can help someone to better themselves in life, then so be it.
Behind bars, everyone's an inmate. Everybody has their skeletons; everybody has their story.
People see me as something I'm not.
Football was a dream, an opportunity once taken from me - something I thought I'd never be able to do again.
From the perspective of everything I went through to have played in four NFL games, it was one of the best experiences of my life.
