Brandon Banks is back on the football field with his Washington Redskins teammates this week, participating in players-only workouts at a Virginia high school.
The wide receiver is exactly where he hoped to be, just three months after he was injured in a stabbing outside a D.C. nightclub.
Banks sustained a collapsed lung in the attack. A friend also was injured. Banks was hospitalized for five days with tube in his chest at one point.
The 23-year-old is ready to put the whole incident behind him.
"Just a victim," Banks told Comcast SportsNet Washington on Wednesday. "There's always somebody trying to bring you down, but if you love the game and love what you do, nobody can stop you."
Banks now has turned his attention to taking the next step as a football player. The 5-foot-7 speedster said he's "probably 90 percent" healthy.
"I'm definitely not going to slow down," he said. "I'm back to the same Brandon and hopefully be a better Brandon."
Banks believes his background has helped him bounce back.
"I've been in tough situations before," he said. "I've lost loved ones. I've been hurt before. I've been in troubling situations before. It's another hurdle to jump. Hopefully, I don't have to jump another hurdle."
Though Banks didn't believe he was to blame in the attack, veteran linebacker London Fletcher had a message for the wideout at the team's first players-only workout last month.
"He's had enough people tell him what to do and what not to do, but it's more about supporting him and letting him know, 'Hey, be wiser about some of the things you do and places you go because there are a lot of people who don't have your best interests at hand,' " Fletcher said.
Fletcher believes the incident actually could make Banks a better player.
"I'm definitely sure Brandon is going to be re-focused because that could have gone a totally different way for him," Fletcher said. "You start to look at your life differently and all of the things that are important to you. ... I know he's grateful for the opportunity to be here and be in the NFL."
