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.
I can hold on to that, that bitterness and that anger. It won't get me anywhere.
Wrongful convictions need to be addressed in America. There are a lot of Brian Banks behind bars right now.
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.
I will exhaust every opportunity there is in football.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Behind bars, everyone's an inmate. Everybody has their skeletons; everybody has their story.
There are many innocent people in prison.
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.
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.
All the negativity that was once around me has turned into all this positivity.
I think of my mother constantly. And how she sacrificed her home and car for my freedom.
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.
I studied and grew as a man so that the situation of being wrongly accused wouldn't define me.
