San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo revealed former New England Patriots team-mate Tom Brady has wished him well ahead of Super Bowl LIV.
Brady and Garoppolo were colleagues in Foxborough but the former's evergreen play meant the latter was traded to San Francisco in 2017 before he became a coveted free agent.
Long viewed as the Patriots' heir apparent, Garoppolo is instead blazing his own trail for Brady's boyhood team and this Sunday he will bid to win the Niners' sixth Super Bowl ring when they face the Kansas City Chiefs in Miami.
Six-time Super Bowl champion Brady, normally preoccupied with work during this week, has been in touch with Garoppolo to offer some simple advice on the NFL's showpiece event.
"He shot me a text, just, 'Good luck', and everything like that," Garoppolo said.
"Just go handle business. Wasn't too complicated or anything, just 'Go win'."
Garoppolo was a two-time Super Bowl winner himself as Brady's deputy, a role he occupied for three years.
He believes his time spent working with arguably the greatest quarterback of all time has served him well now the spotlight is firmly on him.
"He was awesome," Garoppolo added.
"Everything he did, I never tried to be much of a pest and ask too many questions, but just watching him from afar how he went about his business, how he handled off-the-field things, on the field, whatever it was, he always did it the right way.
"So he gave me a good example when I was young."
Garoppolo witnessed Brady engineer fourth-quarter comebacks against the Seattle Seahawks and Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowls, and marvelled at how cool he could stay on the biggest stage.
"I think just how calm he was," Garoppolo added of what he learned from Brady.
"Everyone says you've got to treat it like another game, [but] just the way he actually did it.
"I was up close and personal, picking up everything I could, seeing how he went about his business."
The Niners quarterback is not the only one to have been receiving advice from someone close to him ahead of the Super Bowl.
Rookie defensive end Nick Bosa's brother, Joey, plays for the Los Angeles Chargers, who faced Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes twice a season.
The younger Bosa therefore made sure he got some tips from big brother about how to slow down one of the game's most unique signal callers.
"He definitely told me you can't rush as a single rusher," Nick Bosa revealed.
"You have to rush as a unit, stay in your lanes and not let him get out of the pocket."