PHOENIX — Diamondbacks president and CEO Derrick Hall
is willing to wait for Brian Banks.
Hall, in fact, hopes he has to. He would prefer not to hire Banks just yet.
That is for an NFL team to do.
But if circumstances present themselves in the future, count the D-backs among
those who would welcome him with open arms.
Banks, a former star high school football player with NFL potential, last week
was exonerated after losing 10 years of his life for a crime he did not commit.
Hall was so taken by Banks’ composure and professionalism during a television
interview afterward that he obtained Banks’ email address and fired off a job
offer. If the time comes, they'll find a fit.
“I just thought, ‘This guy needs a fresh start,'” Hall said.
“I saw a very bright, articulate, handsome kid. Great smile. You see a lot of
maturity. You see a kid who has been through adversity and can handle it. He’s
lost 10 years of his life, and it’s time for some good things to happen to
him.”
Hall was aware of Banks’ story from his time in the Los Angeles Dodgers' front
office. Star football player at perennial powerhouse Long Beach Poly with a
scholarship offer to USC at age 16. Incarcerated when a young woman named
Wanetta Gibson accused him of rape and kidnapping. Pleaded guilty to lesser
charges, while maintaining his innocence, on the advice of an attorney who
feared the worst. Served 62 months in prison and wore a court-ordered tracking
device after getting out of jail.
Gibson recanted last year, and Banks was finally cleared in a Long Beach
courtroom on May 24. In less than a week since, four NFL teams have called the 6-foot-2,
245-pound Banks, asking him in for a workout.
“He was a big star. When that came down, it was shocking and devastating,"
Hall remembers. "I don’t think anybody thought that he didn’t do it until
all this came down. I can remember back then saying, 'Oh, what a shame if he
threw his life away like that.'
“It’s obviously a pleasant surprise to learn not only did he not, but that we
all jumped to conclusions and that he actually did nothing wrong.”
Hall’s email included an invitation to check out the D-backs’ organization when
he is through with football. Banks told ESPN’s Rick Reilly that he “about fell
out of my seat” when he read Hall’s email, and Hall was tickled when he heard
that.
“Someone like that ... he deserves a break,” Hall said. “He got one, and he
deserves a career.
“It is crazy. It is a story made for a movie, and I’m sure it will be. I’m so
happy for him that he at least had the truth revealed and that he can start
over. If we can be a part of that and it makes sense for him and for us, I’d be
glad to offer that to him.
“He has to chase his (NFL) dream first. If he comes back to me and says, 'That
didn’t work out, are you still willing to have me come out?' Absolutely, we
are.”
