CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Only one football player can get inside the head of Carolina Panthers cornerback Josh Norman.

It's not New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., although he tried awfully hard last month. Wrong again if you guessed Atlanta wide receiver Julio Jones. It's not Dallas wide receiver Dez Bryant.

And if you're thinking Seattle wide receiver Doug Baldwin, which will draw Norman's coverage some in Sunday's NFL divisional playoff game, think again.

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This player has bounced around the Lone Star Football League, the Canadian Football League and the Arena Football League, stopping in the NFL for a cup of coffee with the Baltimore Ravens in 2014.

And Norman looks at him more as a brother than a player.

That's because it is Norman's brother, Marrio, a defensive back that played for the Cleveland Gladiators this past season.

Actually, it's all of Norman's brothers -- Renaldo, Orlando, Marrio and Phillip -- that called themselves "Five Strong" growing up on a farm outside of Greenwood, South Carolina.

Marrio, 29, just happened to be the closet in age to Josh, 28, and the one he chased the most in athletics.

"We fight all the time," Norman said.

But fighting -- and competing -- with his brothers helped make Josh one of the top cornerbacks in the NFL today. They pushed him in ways nobody could or can.

"Every time I go home it's like I'm on the hierarchy system or something," Norman said earlier this season. "I feel like No. 4 on the list. Man, I'm still riding in the back seat of the car and they're in the front.

"It's like, OK, I'm not going to buck this system because there's three guys that are bigger than me and if I take it on it probably won't be for the best."

Marrio pushed Norman's competitive buttons the most.

"Marrio was his nemesis coming up," said the brothers' father, Roy, a chaplain at a medical prison in Georgia. "Marrio was like gifted, talented. He could just get out there on the football field and make it happen. He was a smart guy.

"They've always been competing against each other."

It started when Marrio and Josh were playing baseball at the ages of 6 and 7. Marrio remembers one game in particular when he was playing shortstop and Josh was at second base.

"There was a pop fly at second base and I kind of ran over there and took it from him," Marrio said. "That really upset him. Just small things like that always struck that fire in him."

Marrio recalled the trophy case in his mother's living room that for the longest time was filled with awards he collected.

"I had a lot," he said. "Josh, the more and more he started to get, he would start to put mine all in the back and put his right in the front."

That competitive nature continued after high school. Marrio was at Coastal Carolina on scholarship. Josh was sleeping on his brother's couch while taking courses at nearby Horry Georgetown Tech because he lacked one course needed to be eligible at Coastal.

Marrio set the bar high there, too, earning all-conference honors in 2007, the year before his brother was offered a spot as a walk-on. If Marrio got three interceptions, Josh wanted four.

"Josh always said the only person I'm afraid of is Marrio, because he considered Marrio his only competition," Roy said. "Marrio had won all the accolades. Josh always trailed, trying to catch up with it and surpass it."

Josh (6-foot-1, 195) finally caught and passed Marrio (5-11, 180) when he was selected by the Panthers in the fifth round of the 2012 draft. Marrio insists Josh's experience of sleeping on his couch and watching him play made his brother stronger.

"It made him that much more hungrier," he said. "Honestly, I don't think he played with that aggressive nature out of high school. I think he adopted that once he came out and saw how I practice, how I approached the game.

"You've got to have some kind of confidence about yourself. He definitely grabbed that from my arsenal and ran with it."

But even now Josh acknowledges some would say his brother "is better than me."

"I second that notion? I don't think so," Norman said. "But some would say if we ever get a chance to see him on this level, we'll see what we're talking about."

Marrio runs a small carrier service near Atlanta while continuing to stay in shape to make one last run at the NFL. He hasn't given up the dream.

But on Sunday he'll be at Bank of America Stadium cheering on his little brother and following that dream.

"At the end of the day, I don't want nobody else in the NFL to be the No. 1 corner but my brother," Marrio said. "He's not at his peak yet.

"So I'm going to keep challenging him and hopefully bring the best out of him."