brianbanks ap

Professional football dreams for one of Long Beach’s most notable sports stories were dashed on Friday when former Poly linebacker Brian Banks was cut from the Atlanta Falcons as part of mandatory roster-trimming before regular-season play. 

Banks, 28, was once a top college-football prospect who at 17 years-old began serving a jail sentence on rape and kidnapping charges that were later proven to be false. He was exonerated of the alleged crimes last year and quicky returned to the field, signing first with the United Football League’s Las Vegas Locomotives and in April of this year, with the NFL’s Falcons. 

Joined during the offseason, Banks played several times during several Falcons’ pre-season games, and entered the last one on Thursday during the fourth quarter, making two solo tackles, one for a loss. Both the team’s General Manager Thomas Dimitroff and Coach Mike Smith have had nothing but positive things to say about Bank’s efforts in the NFL.

“He has really matured and progressed as a football player since we’ve had him on our roster,” Smith told NFL.com Thursday. “He has been a great teammate to the guys in the locker room.”

On Friday afternoon, however, the Falcons announced they were releasing Banks, among other players.

Despite being back in Long Beach Tuesday, Banks remained positive about the opportunity the Falcons gave him and acknowledged his struggle to catch up on skills he missed by not playing four years of college ball. 

“My learning curve is definitely different from a lot of guys here,” Banks said. “Whereas I was learning a lot of the one-on-one basic things of football as well as the intermediate things of football, and mesh it all together at once … in a small period of time, so it was definitely challenging, but overall I enjoyed myself the whole time.”

Fox Sports reported that despite the team’s decision to release Banks, Falcons owner Arthur Blank was so impressed with him that he may try to find him a job with the team, possibly in a community relations capacity or even on the team’s practice squad, where the eight spots there are usually reserved for young prospects.

“Everything’s been highs for the most part,” said Banks. ” I’ve already had too many lows.”

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