Brian Banks, a former high school football star who lost his scholarship to USC -- and five years of his life -- after he was falsely accused of rape, will get a chance to play professionally in the United Football League.
Banks has signed with the Las Vegas Locomotives, CBS 2 in Los Angeles reports.
In 2003, the teenage Banks was convicted of raping a high school classmate named Wanetta Gibson. After he spent five years in prison, lawyers with the California Innocence Project demonstrated that there was no DNA evidence in the case, and after Banks was released he secretly recorded a conversation with Gibson in which she admitted that she made the whole thing up to make money off a lawsuit against the school district.
Gibson has not been charged with perjury or any related crimes, and legal analysts say she is not likely to be forced to repay the $750,000 settlement she received from the school district.
The Locomotives, who are coached by Jim Fassel and quarterbacked by Brian Brohm, open their UFL season on Wednesday night.