New Falcon Brian Banks full of inspiration

[Thewholefnshow28]

Each offseason, Atlanta Falcons coach Mike Smith has his players read a book of inspiration or listen to a motivational speaker.

This offseason, Smith and the Falcons have gone a step further and brought in the real deal with Brian Banks, who signed with the team Wednesday. You can excuse Banks if his signature on the contract looked even larger than John Hancock's famous autograph.

This moment of personal accomplishment and freedom was 10 years in the making.

Banks is a living, breathing combination of the best of Stephen Covey, Joel Osteen and Jon Gordon. Ray Lewis has nothing on Banks when it comes to overcoming adversity. Smith has had his players listen to Gordon and even read some of his books, such as "The Energy Bus", "Soup" and "The Shark and The Goldfish".

 

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nfl--new-falcon-brian-banks-full-of-inspiration---203601215.html

 

This is definitely a good story and glad the guy has caught on with the Falcons.  Hopefully he can make the roster and have a few years in the NFL.  After losing 10 years of his life it is great to him trying to fullfill a dream he had.

The sad part of this story is the girl gets nothing for her lies.  No jail time, does not have to give the money back to the school district and just moves on with her life even after stripping a guy of 10 years of his life that he will never get back.

Edited April 4, 2013 by Superman
please don't post entire articles

[JoKeR]

That girl should pay and so should the local government for just taking her word for gospel.

[Nobody]

That girl should pay and so should the local government for just taking her word for gospel.

That's just how society is now. If a girl claims rape, you don't need proof to put away any guy she points her finger at. Don't get me wrong, rape is an awful, awful thing, and worse than murder to some... but we can't let people do this. It's disgusting what Banks had to go through.

I don't think girls should be severley punished for false rape accusations, however. Morally, I do. Girls who cry wolf should pay dearly like the men they blame, but if we punish them, even more girls won't come out after they've been raped. An astonishing amount of rapes go unreported. If there is a chance that the girl would get in trouble for reporting a real rape, she would have even more reason to never report it.

It's a real problem.

[Fx Stryker]

They just had a 20/20, I believe it was 20/20, special on Brian Banks. He was being recruited by USC in high school. The coach was Pete Carrol. Then when Brian was acquitted he go a phone call from the now Seattle Seahawks head coach, Pete Carrol.

 

He was at their camp last season, but he struggled from being away from the game so long. Looks like he has improved to get a shot with the Falcons.

 

Hope he does well.

[james_zeigler1994]

Hope he makes the team.

[PrincetonTiger]

Good Luck Mr. Banks

[Vance]

The sad part of this story is the girl gets nothing for her lies.  No jail time, does not have to give the money back to the school district and just moves on with her life even after stripping a guy of 10 years of his life that he will never get back.

 

Welcome to the modern western world. Toxic indeed.

[Valpo2004]

That's just how society is now. If a girl claims rape, you don't need proof to put away any guy she points her finger at. Don't get me wrong, rape is an awful, awful thing, and worse than murder to some... but we can't let people do this. It's disgusting what Banks had to go through.

I don't think girls should be severley punished for false rape accusations, however. Morally, I do. Girls who cry wolf should pay dearly like the men they blame, but if we punish them, even more girls won't come out after they've been raped. An astonishing amount of rapes go unreported. If there is a chance that the girl would get in trouble for reporting a real rape, she would have even more reason to never report it.

It's a real problem.

 

Instead she and her family where awarded with a cool 1.5 million.  Which they have already spent and are now on welfare, food-stamps and the like.  

 

I think there should be punishment for false accusations.  Remember that you have to prove that the accusation is definitively false beyond a reasonable doubt before you can jail someone for that.  

 

It's not like your "he said, she said" in which you can't really prove either way is gonna put a girl in jail for claiming rape.  You have to prove that she outright and intentionally lied about it.  

 

You can only prove that is if the girl later said "Yeah I lied" or you can prove that the guy wasn't even in the same area as her at the time she says the rape happened.  

 

I don't think it would make people report rapes any less.  

 

I don't think the reason rape is under reported has much to do with fear of being labeled a "rape victim".  I think it has more to do with the ambiguities of the situation and other factors.  A girl may be wondering if she was clear about not wanting to have sex.  The other factor is that the vast majority of the time the victim knows and knows well her attacker.  And it then becomes a question of if she wants to put this person in prison for a long time.  It seems easy for those disconnected to say "Yes put him away" but its not so easy in that situation.  Plus there is the question of how that affects their status in their family or social group.

 

I know we had a similar situation in my family, it wasn't about rape per se, but it was a similar situation that I don't want to get into the details on.  

 

But based on that I am guessing that most of the public makes the wrong assumptions about why rape is under reported.  They also put too much weight on the idea of a serial rapist striking someone specifically to rape them.  Those crimes do occur but they are like serial killers, they get way more press coverage then the percentage of the crime they actually commit.  

 

Also I think more then anything I think the Brian Banks story says something sad about our system of plea deals that allow prosecutors to notch convictions with the mere threat of severe punishments and not actual evidence.  Where it based on actual evidence this prosecutor may not have even tried the case.  But a very young kid who was probably scared out of his mind got told that he's facing 40 years in jail . . . or he can take the deal and just do 5. 

[Nobody]

Instead she and her family where awarded with a cool 1.5 million. Which they have already spent and are now on welfare, food-stamps and the like.

I think there should be punishment for false accusations. Remember that you have to prove that the accusation is definitively false beyond a reasonable doubt before you can jail someone for that.

It's not like your "he said, she said" in which you can't really prove either way is gonna put a girl in jail for claiming rape. You have to prove that she outright and intentionally lied about it.

You can only prove that is if the girl later said "Yeah I lied" or you can prove that the guy wasn't even in the same area as her at the time she says the rape happened.

I don't think it would make people report rapes any less.

I don't think the reason rape is under reported has much to do with fear of being labeled a "rape victim". I think it has more to do with the ambiguities of the situation and other factors. A girl may be wondering if she was clear about not wanting to have sex. The other factor is that the vast majority of the time the victim knows and knows well her attacker. And it then becomes a question of if she wants to put this person in prison for a long time. It seems easy for those disconnected to say "Yes put him away" but its not so easy in that situation. Plus there is the question of how that affects their status in their family or social group.

I know we had a similar situation in my family, it wasn't about rape per se, but it was a similar situation that I don't want to get into the details on.

But based on that I am guessing that most of the public makes the wrong assumptions about why rape is under reported. They also put too much weight on the idea of a serial rapist striking someone specifically to rape them. Those crimes do occur but they are like serial killers, they get way more press coverage then the percentage of the crime they actually commit.

I completely agree with you, and if you just think for a moment it's obvious that if you were raped you won't go to jail for sure, but rape victims don't think clearly, and if they're already on the edge of whether or not to report it, a possible punishment (even if it would take some really crazy things, like corrupt cops and planted evidence and the like) could lead to the victim just letting it go.

[JoKeR]

Banks shouldn't be denied justice because it might make some girls not report rape. Not to sound cold but that's their responsibility to report or not. It is disgusting that someone can spend years in jail for nothing and the government just shrugs its shoulders. In sum it became government backed kidnapping and larceny.

[JoKeR]

IMO there's prosecutors out there who deserve very bad things done to them because of their flippant attitude about people's freedom and don't serve justice but injustice.

[21isSuperman]

I hope this guy has a ton of success, gets to some Pro Bowls and Super Bowls.  It's ridiculously unfair what happened to him and he deserves to live his dream.  Given all he has gone through, I think the Colts should acquire him....you know...since we are going to be winning at least 5 of the next 7 Super Bowls.  It only seems fair to give the man the best shot to win a Super Bowl

[smittywerb]

The way you stop the false accusations of rape is this:

If the man goes free because he was wrongfully accused and its proved he's innocent, then the accuser should do the time the other person did. So in this case, banks did 10 years, then the woman should be getting ready to do 10 years.

[Fx Stryker]

I hope this guy has a ton of success, gets to some Pro Bowls and Super Bowls.  It's ridiculously unfair what happened to him and he deserves to live his dream.  Given all he has gone through, I think the Colts should acquire him....you know...since we are going to be winning at least 5 of the next 7 Super Bowls.  It only seems fair to give the man the best shot to win a Super Bowl

 

of Course we will, but I think he has a really great shot with the Falcons at getting a SB.

[chad72]

Wasn't there an offensive lineman from ACU or somewhere who had consensual sex with a minor as a minor and had to register as a sex offender in his state and thus went undrafted in the NFL? Anyone remember his name?

 

EDIT: I found it: http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=5497517

 

http://www.acuoptimist.com/2010/04/former-lineman-washington-goes-undrafted/

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Washington

 

But at least Brian Banks got his chance, and I hope he makes the team.

[Valpo2004]

Wasn't there an offensive lineman from ACU or somewhere who had consensual sex with a minor as a minor and had to register as a sex offender in his state and thus went undrafted in the NFL? Anyone remember his name?

 

EDIT: I found it: http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=5497517

 

http://www.acuoptimist.com/2010/04/former-lineman-washington-goes-undrafted/

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Washington

 

But at least Brian Banks got his chance, and I hope he makes the team.

 

Was reading that and wow, seems a little harsh.

 

Sex offender registry is way too broad and too many dudes are getting on there that are harmless, which of course makes it harder to find the ones that you need to be worried about.

 

In some states you can get on there for propositioning a prostitute.  

 

Oddly enough I don't think the prostitutes themselves end up there. 

[chad72]

Sex offender registry is way too broad and too many dudes are getting on there that are harmless

 

Yep, it happens. If a 17 year old has consensual sex with another 16 year old minor, that 17 year old can be tried if the parents of the other minor are bent on making life difficult for that 17 year old, and in some states it might require that 17 year old to register as a sex offender too.