Travis Etienne drove back to Louisiana.

I want you to think about that for a second. He grew up in Jennings. He went to Clemson, four hours away. He got drafted by Jacksonville, four more hours in the other direction. He spent five years in Florida, which is fine, Florida is fine, but it is not home. And now he signed with New Orleans, and he is going home.

He said it was "more than a cherry on top." That is the quote. That is the whole thing right there.

The running back position in this league is the most physically demanding position in professional sports. The players who play it absorb contact that would end the careers of players at other positions. They run full speed into people who are paid to hurt them, and they get up and do it again, and they do it for as many years as their bodies allow before the body says no more. They do not get paid like quarterbacks. They do not get celebrated like wide receivers. They get the ball on the goal line when it matters most and they fall forward and they fight for the extra yard and nobody remembers their name at the end of the season.

Travis Etienne went home anyway. On a football contract, in a football city, for a team that can use him.

That is the other thing I want to say about New Orleans: they understand running backs. The Saints' history with the position group is a lineage. They have run the ball with conviction in that city for thirty years. The organization does not apologize for it. The fans love it. There is a reason running backs choose New Orleans when they have options.

Across the league this week, players are making these decisions. They are reading the cities on the offers and thinking about where they want to be when the season starts. Some of them are making the financial decision. Some of them are making the football decision. Some of them are making the home decision.

Etienne made the home decision. And I think he is going to have a very good year.

Keep watching this league. Every week there is something in it that reminds you why you started.