SUNDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2010
KLMNO PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL Deemed a long shot, Banks provides big returns redskins from D1 When Wall plays for the Wiz-
ards — something he has done sporadically during his rookie season because of nagging inju- ries—he iswhat hewas expected to be: The team’s most dynamic force, an up-and-coming star around which a franchise could be rebuilt.When Banks plays for theRedskins—something he has done in every game since he was signed fromthe practice squad in October—he iswhat only he and a scant few others expected him to be: the team’s most dynamic force, a game-changing kick and punt returner so quick he rarely takes a direct hit, but so small his little sister turns away from the television when he drops back to receive a kick. “He’s so little,” Gabby Mayo
said. “I’mscared someone’s going to hurt him.” Banks andWall, 20, grewup in
similar circles and similar cir- cumstances.When Banks starred in football at Garner High, just outside Raleigh,N.C.,Wallwould go to the games just to watch him. When Wall left Garner and ended up at Word of God Chris- tian Academy in Raleigh, Banks kept tabs on himfromafar.Wall’s freshman season at Kentucky coincided with Banks’s senior season at Kansas State. “High school, middle school,
whatever—he was always one of the best players, no matter his size,”Wall said. “Just so fast.” They are linked, too, in one
other way. Wall grew up without his father, who spent much of Wall’s youth in prison before died. Banks grew up without his mother, who, records show, has a history of criminal charges — a litany of misdemeanor drug cas- es, suspended sentences, the odd night in jail, probation — that date back nearly 20 years. “I think it left a void in his
heart,” said Daryle McNair, Banks’s father. “It left a void in him you can’t fill. I had to sit there and watch him with that pain, and nobody can under- stand that but me. When his mom called, I’d see him light up. And then she wouldn’t call for days and months. It was painful to watch himendure that.” Sheronda Banks gave birth to
Brandon when she was 20, and Brandon remembers, froma very young age, watching her battle addiction, occasionally doing drugs in front of him. Because of his mother’s problems, he had to staywith his great aunt, until the day his father decided he had to seek sole custody. That was the day Brandon Banks essentially broke away from his mother for good. Occasionally, he would hear where she was. Once in a while, they had some interaction. But in the biography he submit- ted to the Redskins’ for use in the team’s publishedmaterials—me- dia guides and game programs— he listed his parents as “Daryle and Monique McNair,” a nod to his father’s wife of the past eight years, a shunning of his mother and what she did. “I didn’t knowif itwas good or
bad for you,what shewas doing,” Banks said. “Now, I can’t do nothing about the past. It hurts me, but it doesn’t, because I’mso used to it. It’s what I know. It’s what I seen, and what’s been done. But I don’t wish nobody to be in that position.”
A fast impression The position in which Banks
found himself almost exactly a year ago, last Dec. 13, was unfa- miliar and unsettling, enough to ruin a career. He had an argu- mentwithhis girlfriend,whowas more than seven months preg- nant, at his apartment in Man- hattan, home to Kansas State. Neighbors called the police. Banks was arrested. “I was very, very disappointed, because I never, ever had any
JONATHAN NEWTON/THE WASHINGTON POST
“High school, middle school, whatever—he was always one of the best players, no matter his size. Just so fast.” —John Wall, on the Redskins’ Brandon Banks
trouble out of Brandon,” McNair said. “Iwas shocked to hear some of the things he was doing.” Growing up in the southeast
section of Raleigh, Banks and Mayo, his half-sister, now an Olympic hopeful who has set sprint records at Texas A&M, used sports to stay focused. From a young age, Banks was on travel teams for track, football, basket- ball. As a Pop Warner player at halftime of a Carolina Panthers game, he stiff-armed a defender and—as the portion of the crowd that wasn’t buying hot dogs and beers rose and cheered — sprint- ed 60 or 70 yards for a touch- down, an exciting enough play that the Panthersmascot jumped on him in the end zone. He was, too, a point guard in basketball, not that he had a future in that sport. “He was out of control,” Wall
said. “But he was fast, so he would just break the press by himself. Athletic. He couldn’t re- ally dunk because of his height, but he could jump. Good defen- sive person — but he was way, way better at football.” So that became his focus at
GarnerHigh.With the two oldest of his three children beginning to excel at sports, McNair was moved to the second shift at the post office, leaving himunable to attend games and practices. So he quit. “Iwas nervous and scared, and
wondering: Was that the right thing to do?” McNair said. “My friends said, ‘Man, are you crazy?’ But I was like, ‘I don’t have too much of a choice.’ I need to be withmy kids.” He eventually started a busi-
ness driving disabled children to and fromschool.Hewanted to be there for Banks and Mayo, so he was. InBanks’s case, he had to be. “School wasn’t my biggest
thing,” Banks said. “I could care less about school.” His father implored him to
change. “It’s student-athlete for a reason,” McNair said. “You know they go hand-in-hand.” But after graduating in June
2006, Banks was directionless. He ran AAU track that summer, but as fall approached, he had no plan. “I was chillin’, about to find a
job,”Banks said. “It could’ve gone any way. I wouldn’t be nothing.” Encouraged by one of his AAU
track coaches, he pursued an opportunity at Bakersfield Col- lege, a junior college inCalifornia where a fewotherNorthCarolina athletes had landed. From there, he took off. Tutors helped him lock down on schoolwork, and he excelled as an all-purpose foot- ball player, becoming a JUCO
all-American. The Division I of- fers started rolling in. And on a snowy weekend late in 2007, he visited Kansas State, where he was hosted by theWildcats’ quar- terback, Josh Freeman. Freeman was entering his senior year, and he had watched Banks on film. Immediately, he became con- vincedBanks’sheight—or lack of it—would be a non-issue. “He had such great ball skills,
and he justmoves sowell, I think hemakes up for any deficiency he has in the height department,” said Freeman, who will play against Banks on Sunday as the quarterback of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. “I remember him making a number of just extraor- dinary plays. He’s just a rare talent.” So Banks became a standout
for the Wildcats, the Big 12 spe- cial teams player of the year as a senior, when he returned four kickoffs for touchdowns, as well as a second-team all-conference receiver. Then came the arrest. Banks
called the entire episode “a mis- understanding,” but he admits to arguing with his girlfriend. He eventually pleaded no contest to amisdemeanor domestic battery charge, and charges for disorder- ly conduct and possession of a controlled substance — which Banks said was codeine pre- scribed to his roommate — were dismissed. The impact on Banks was
enormous. He is convinced the incident kept teams from draft- ing him, even in the sixth or seventh round. His thoughts turned to quitting football. “I about gave up,” he said. “I almost shut it down.”
All the right moves Two weeks ago, Banks took a
punt fromtheMinnesota Vikings deep in his own territory and cut to his left. He found an opening, and slithered through. It was his eighth NFL game, and by that point, Redskins coaches — who cut himafter training camp, then signed himto the practice squad, then brought him to the regular roster in Week 4 — knew what they had. “When guys start looking
around and trying to avoid those contacts, it’s tough to play well,” Redskins offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan said. “But he doesn’t think about it at all, and that’s why he’s done such a good job on his returns: He’s not worried about getting hit.” When Banks caught the punt,
theRedskins trailed 17-13.He had already handed Washington a field goal by returning one kick- off 65 yards, and he was develop-
ing his personal highlight pack- age. He had a 96-yard kickoff return for a touchdown against Detroit, a game in which he set a franchise record with 271 return yards — a number that would have been higher had a 95-yard kickoff not been called back be- cause of a penalty. “It seems like every time he
runs one back,” Wall said, “they call it back for a penalty.” So here he was against the
Vikings, planting his left foot and cutting upfield.When he arrived in the end zone—oblivious to the flag that lay on the field some 80 yards behind him — he celebrat- ed in what has become his cus- tomary fashion, flexing his bicep, then turning his fist in and out, the exact same danceWall brand- ed during his days at Kentucky. Wallwatched on television. Same old Brandon. “I never was surprised,” Wall
said. “He always had the separa- tion speed to get away from people, and he caught the ball. I never was surprised. It runs in his family. And he always had the heart.” Said McNair, Banks’s father:
“That’s what people can’t see.” They also can’t seewhat Banks
has been through to get here, growing up without his mom. Now, he serves as a father to 10-month-old Jade, who has spent much of the season with Banks and her mother in Virgin- ia. More than his arrest, more than his flirtation with leaving football and getting regular job, he said Jade has changed his life. “Before I had her, Iwas kind of
out running the streets, living the partying life,” Banks said. “But when I had my daughter, it kind of settledme down and I realized I got some work to do. I need to raise her right so she don’t go
EZ SU
D5
TONI L. SANDYS/THE WASHINGTON POST
Redskins wide receiver-return specialist Brandon Banks makes a point of attending Wizards games to root for childhood friend JohnWall,Washington’s rookie point guard who also hails from Raleigh,N.C.
through the things I went through when I grew up.” That world, in a few quick
months, seems far off. On Friday night, Bankswent to theWizards game, sat in the second row. He and Wall occasionally retire to Wall’s downtown apartment af- ter games. “Every chance I get,” Banks
said. “Gotta seemy boy.” Banks’s boy was the one who
was supposed to be here all along. Banks himself? He was small. He was shaken. He could have quit. “I think about it every day,”
Banks said. “I always sit down and think:What if I chose just to get up and get a job? What if I thought about never playing football again?”
svrlugab@washpost.com
Staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.
JONATHAN NEWTON/THE WASHINGTON POST Banks had many obstacles on his way to securing anNFLjob, including a largely motherless childhood.
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