ATLANTA — The Falcons will release longshot linebacker Brian Banks, who spent more than five years in prison for a crime of which he was falsely accused and later exonerated.
As first reported by FOXSports.com’s Jay Glazer, Banks will not make the final cuts when the 53-man roster is due by Saturday at 6 p.m. ET.
However, Glazer also tweeted that Falcons owner Arthur Blank was so impressed with Banks that Blank and “his partners . . . are actually trying to place him in a career opportunity in Atlanta around the team.”
While it’s possible that that position could be in the form of being signed to the team’s practice squad — a move that could not come until Sunday — it sounds more like a position in community relations. Blank also runs a family foundation, which supports various causes and he tightly integrates the foundation with the Falcons.
As a result, it’s also possible that Blank could create a position for Banks with the foundation. Banks himself does nonprofit work relating to the California Innocence Project, which helped to do the legal work to get him released from prison.