Brian Banks

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.

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.

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.

Football was a dream, an opportunity once taken from me - something I thought I'd never be able to do again.

People see me as something I'm not.

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.

There was a time when I had nothing. I lost everything.

I studied and grew as a man so that the situation of being wrongly accused wouldn't define me.

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.

Behind bars, everyone's an inmate. Everybody has their skeletons; everybody has their story.

If my story can help someone to better themselves in life, then so be it.

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.

I feel my situation is no different from anybody else's experiences.

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.

To make a 53-man roster would be a huge accomplishment - right up there with getting exonerated for a crime I didn't commit.

All the negativity that was once around me has turned into all this positivity.

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.

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.