AKRON, Ohio - It's probably happened before. Young college quarterback scores tickets to the local NFL game on his only day off of the week, gladly accepts them and -- just like his coaches would want him to -- doesn't just go to the game with his buddies but pays careful attention when he's there.
In this case, that game was the last Cleveland Browns game, September 21 vs. the Baltimore Ravens. And here's what the University of Akron backup quarterback saw.
"A lot more No. 6 jerseys than I saw before," Matt Hoyer said. "I still saw Johnny Manziel jerseys, and I see them on campus all the time. But at that game, I saw at least 200 people wearing my brother's jersey. That's a pretty cool thing to see."
Matt Hoyer's connection to those tickets happens to be his oldest brother, Brian, the Cleveland-born starting quarterback of the Browns. Though Manziel's jersey was the top seller across the NFL from last spring through the summer, Hoyer won a training camp competition for the starting job and is starting to sell jerseys, too.
His brother is noticing.
Matt's been following Brian's every move for 20 years now.
"I have to take a step back like, 'Woah. Brian's an NFL quarterback. He's an idol to kids. He's a hometown celebrity,'" Matt Hoyer said. "It's pretty cool but no, I'm not used to it. It's a little different. I honestly have stopped when I've seen my last name on the back of jerseys people are wearing."
Business is good for Brian, who became an Opening Day starter for the first time in his six-year NFL career last month. Through three games, he's completing 64 percent of his passes, has a 97.5 quarterback rating and 3 touchdown passes along with the NFL's current longest streak of passes without an interception.
As the hometown kid made good, he's on billboards throughout Cleveland and Akron and on radio commercials for a Cleveland-based sandwich shop and window company. A recent national magazine photo shoot took Brian -- in his full Browns uniform -- to a local diner for an impromptu lunchtime photo shoot.
"That stuff has been pretty cool," Brian said, and his brother agrees.
"I like the windows commercial better," Matt joked. "But I will confess that growing up, when my mom wasn't around my dad definitely took us to Mr. Hero instead of cooking dinner. So to see Brian on a Mr. Hero billboard along the highway, that's really funny."
While Brian has stories of going to see the old Browns in old Municipal Stadium, Matt was in diapers then. His football experiences included going on college visits with the family before Brian chose Michigan State and serving as the fourth-grade ball boy for St. Ignatius High School when Brian was a senior.
In Cleveland, there's a certain gravity and status to holding the starting quarterback's job at St. Ignatius, which has won 11 state championships and multiple mythical national championships under legendary coach Chuck Kyle. Matt Hoyer threw 15 touchdown passes while holding that job in his junior season. He lost a summer camp competition to Eric Williams, who now plays at Yale, his senior year.
"But we won the state championship, so I can't be too mad at him," Matt said.
Like Brian, Matt was a star baseball player in high school, too. Matt chose football and Div. II Mercyhurst out of high school but after a year decided "it wasn't the right place," so he transferred to Akron where the youngest Hoyer, sister Lauren, is also a student. He asked coach Terry Bowden "just for an opportunity" to walk on and be a part of the team, and he's now in his second year with the Zips.
Akron lists three quarterbacks on its latest depth chart. Matt Hoyer is not one of them.
Brian Hoyer's story is one of perseverance, and he reminds Matt of that often. From a crowded quarterback room at Michigan State to starting, to going undrafted, to catching on then being cut by the New England Patriots, and being cut twice more before starting with the Browns in the spring of 2013 as the third-team quarterback and then going 3-0 before suffering a knee injury, it's been quite a ride.
"I think I always had confidence in myself," Brian said. "I knew I'd get another chance somewhere, wherever it may be. It just so happened to be in my hometown, so it worked out pretty well."
Lessons learned along the way are passed down, almost daily, by phone or text message.
"Work ethic, the way he carries himself, those are things any young quarterback should take from Brian," Matt Hoyer said. "Being his brother makes it extra special. I'm trying to do the things he's done. When he talks about his time with Tom Brady and learning from the best, he means that. He's not just saying it. I'm trying to be a branch off that tree. Anything he says about football, I'm listening.
"Obviously, there's a long way to go. But he's faced adversity, he's worked, he's stuck with it. Long before the knee (injury last year) he got cut, he was a backup, he was never promised anything. He's earned it all. He always tells me to outwork everybody. That's the only way it's going to happen. It's not going to be easy, but anything is possible."
Matt said he remembers a "quiet day in the Hoyer household" when a TV crew came for the draft but Brian waited -- and fans watched -- but the call never came. He remembers last year's injury and the bouncing around in 2012 and just about everything Brian's ever done related to football going all the way back to 2004 at St. Ignatius when one Hoyer quarterbacked and another hustled along as the ball boy.
"I thought he was the best quarterback in high school football history," Matt said. "It was a lot of fun."
This ride right now -- though Brian said this week "it's just starting" -- has been pretty fun, too.
"Seeing him in a Browns uniform, it's still surreal," Matt said. "I have a buddy (here at Akron) who asked me to get Brian to sign his jersey. I told him I want to see him wear it around campus."
Akron plays a home game Saturday afternoon. Saturday happens to be Matt's 21st birthday.
Sunday, he figures he'll sleep in but be up in time for the Browns game. He wouldn't miss it.
Next week, he hopes to see a familiar name on a few more jerseys across campus.
