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Though he’s now on his fourth NFL team, this was the first time in Johnathan Abram’s professional career he was able to choose where he wanted to play.

There were a couple of reasons he chose to sign a one-year contract with the New Orleans Saints, including the usual talking points — the winning, the electric home games, et cetera. But there was that major draw for Abram specifically.

That can best be explained by the game-used NFL football that, he believes, is sitting with a bunch of his other memorabilia at his grandmother’s house in Mississippi. That ball was once thrown by Aaron Brooks and caught by Joe Horn before it was hand-delivered to a young Johnathan Abram in the stands.



“It was a home game in New Orleans. My parents brought me down, we were there pretty early and got to see the warmups and how things worked out,” Abram said. “I remember screaming at Joe Horn, like, ‘I want a ball! I want a ball! I want a ball!’ When he scored, he jumped up and gave it to me.

“I’ll probably have to bring it the first day of work (here).”

Abram was born and raised in Mississippi. He played his high school football at East Marion High, about two hours north of his new home stadium, the Caesars Superdome.

He spent the first four years of his career about as geographically and culturally far from home as the NFL could take him — Oakland, Las Vegas, Green Bay, Seattle — and he’s looking forward to changing that.

“It means a little bit more when you’re playing for what they call the home team,” Abram said.

SmashMouth

AsylumGuido

I love that players now WANT to come to the Saints to play. It wasn't that way 20 years ago.

Rugby Saint II

Mickey Loomis, Sean Payton, and the Bensons changed the direction of this franchise. A lot of folks think they suck, but we had the best winning record in the NFL for years. We have the team to turn things around IF everyone stays healthy. Which is asking a lot apparently.

K Major

Meh ...

Big hitter but misses a lot of tackles + allowed a passer rating of 118.00 (11 TD passes) & 9 penalties. Kinda make sense why the Raiders waived him. Not sure why he didn't stick in Green Bay though.

My guess is that he'll be utilized as a hybrid LB because you DO NOT want him in coverage.

A one-year deal makes sense.

The Saints still need to draft another safety.

JPPT1974

Hope he will fit with this team and really show the Raiders why they shouldn't had cut him in the very first place.

AsylumGuido

Rugby Saint II

Great. Now, go get a better one in the draft.