New England Patriots quarterbacks Tom Brady and Brian Hoyer celebrate after the game-winning touchdown in overtime for a 37-31 win against the Kansas City Chiefs during the AFC Championship game. ▲

FOXBORO — Brian Hoyer was 11 years old when the Cleveland Browns moved to Baltimore. When the next Browns franchise joined the league, Hoyer was entering high school and, by that point, he didn't have an allegiance to any NFL team.

Growing up, Hoyer loved football, but favored individual players more than teams, due to the Browns' relocation. His early favorite was Hall-of-Fame cornerback Deion Sanders. But as a quarterback himself, there was another player he "always loved."

Tom Brady.

Hoyer was 15 when Brady entered the NFL. Fast forward 19 years and Hoyer has far more in common with Brady than even he would've expected. The Patriots' backup quarterback has become one of Brady's closest friends and someone who pushes him daily.

"It's a unique position because to me, obviously as a quarterback you want to play," Hoyer said, "To me, I would love to be playing, but if I'm going to be a backup, there's one guy that I'm willing to be a backup to and that's him because I have such admiration for him and we're such good friends. There's competition always because we're always competing against each other and it's a healthy competition because I'm always trying to push him."

Brady loves to challenge backup quarterbacks. At times, you'll see trash cans set up in the corner of the end zone and each passer will take a turn trying to get the ball in the bucket. There's another, where each quarterback will try to hit the crossbar on the field goal post. The first one to get there wins.

Hoyer claims he's beaten Brady more over the last two seasons. It's part of what makes this friendship work.

"I think he appreciates that," Hoyer said. "He doesn't want someone in here that's not going to push him."

It wasn't always like that. Hoyer admits that when he first came to the Patriots as an undrafted rookie in 2009, he was a little star struck with the man he looked up in high school. How was Hoyer supposed to push a three-time Super Bowl champion?

It took the quarterback to get out of Foxboro in order to find some answers. After being released by the Patriots in 2012, Hoyer started for five different NFL teams — Arizona, Cleveland, Houston, Chicago and San Francisco. When the Patriots brought Hoyer back in 2017, he had 37 career starts under his belt.

Outside of football, as a father of two, Hoyer also has more in common with Brady, a father of three, during this second stint.

"Now, I look at it like he's my friend. He's my fellow quarterback and our relationship is so much more fun this time around," Hoyer said. "We're kind of in similar life stages. We can talk about things that are a lot more similar — our kids, our wives, obviously football. When I was here the first time, I never played any meaningful football. Since then, I've been a starter for four different teams and played a lot of football.

"I think he values my opinions and regards those very highly. I never would ever hold something back if I felt like I needed to say something to him. Whether it's about how he's throwing the football or whatever it might be. We kind of feed off each other when it comes to that."

Hoyer's relationship with Brady also fostered a positive working environment. He admittedly has been in situations before where his relationship with other quarterbacks wasn't very good due to "jealously" and it created a toxic work environment. Now? Hoyer loves coming to work, in part thanks to his friendship.

When people ask him for a favorite Brady story, he simply explains how good of a friend Brady is.

That in of itself speaks volumes.

"I just tell them, 'look everyone gets to see how great of a player he is, but I get to see how great of a person he is every day,'" Hoyer said. "You have such admiration for him because here he is, he's accomplished so much and he just wants to be one of the guys. He just wants to come in every day, work his butt off and go win the next game. I think that's relatable to anybody."