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After his older brother was shot and killed in New Orleans almost eight years ago, Jason Weaver and his relatives decided he needed to leave the city as soon as he graduated high school to pursue both an education and a football career in college.

Weaver did, attending a community college more than 1,600 miles away. The tackle later transferred to a Football Bowl Subdivision program one state over from home, doing well enough to attain a diploma, sign in 2013 as an undrafted rookie free agent with one NFL team and latch on to the practice squad of another.

Recently, Weaver was cut loose by his team, and — life being what it is — the next club to present him with an audition for a gig in the pros was the one from the city where his brother was slain.

It gave Weaver no pause to sign onto the Saints’ expanded offseason roster Tuesday, despite the pain he has known in New Orleans. If nothing else, doing so afforded him possibilities to fulfill a promise he made when, about 11 years old, he went to a Saints home game with his aunt Kathleen Lucien, nodded at the field and told her, “I’m going to be down there.”

Lucien retorted, “What, do you want to meet a Saintsation?” And he said, “No, I want to be a football player” for the ones in black and gold.

“Now, it’s actually happening,” said Weaver, whose NFL dreams are mostly driven by his nephew, the boy his brother left behind. “It’s just good that I really have a chance to make that dream come true.”

Read more: Saints' OL Weaver plays for his brother and the young son he left behind | Sports | The Advocate — Baton Rouge, LA

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Everyone is entitled to be stupid, but some abuse the privilege.

All little common sense goes a long way.