The Atlanta Falcons on Wednesday signed Brian Banks, the once promising high school football star who spent five years in prison for rape before being exonerated. Banks, 27, was just 16 and made a verbal commitment to Southern Cal when a classmate of his at Long Beach Polytechnic High School accused him of rape. She eventually recanted her claim, which helped Banks win his exoneration last year after serving five years in prison and another five on probation. Calling signing with the Falcons “surreal,” Banks said that “to lose it all and watch the world pass you by as you sit inside a prison cell ... and then get it back, it’s very humbling.”
