Whether it was on the Patriots sidelines or on this year's episodes of "Hard Knocks," Bill O'Brien has established that his temper will boil over from time to time. For that very reason, Tom Brady and Brian Hoyer nicknamed him "Teapot."
Eventually, Brady and Hoyer got their hands on an actual teapot, and whenever O'Brien would have a flare-up, they'd write the story of that particular incident on the teapot.
"Those were some good times," Hoyer told reporters on Wednesday. "Basically, any time we felt it was justified, we'd put it on the teapot like it was the Stanley Cup. I brought a teapot in one day. Tom and I thought it would be funny to just keep adding to the story. At a certain point, I started writing them down in my notebook. Finally, when we brought the teapot in, we started wrapping them around and eventually it was pretty full."
Hoyer said that for an idea of the types of stories that made their way onto the teapot, an episode or two of "Hard Knocks," which followed the Texans during training camp, would do the trick.
"I think that kind of gives you a little bit of a taste for what qualified," Hoyer said. "But there’s a few good ones that I remember that I probably can’t really talk about on the air or to the press."
O'Brien would fight Brady and Hoyer on what qualified as a teapot moment and what didn't, and he said that the quarterbacks could be nicknamed "Teapot" themselves for their blow-ups. But in the end, the players had the final say as to what was written down for posterity.
The widely-publicized spat between Brady and O'Brien on the sidelines back in 2011, after Brady was intercepted attempting a pass to wideout Tiquan Underwood, of course had its place on the teapot.
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"Oh, that was the ultimate," Hoyer said. "That was around there. But Tom was on there for that one too."
Hoyer was one of the few people who tried to separate the two during that moment. Patriots receivers coach Chad O'Shea also played the role of peacemaker.
"Yeah, I figured I’d let it go for a little bit, let them fume," Hoyer said. "Then realized that it was a game to win. It was the fourth quarter and it was a tight game. I said, 'alright' and tried to just be a shield in between them. I think [Texans offensive coordinator and former Patriots tight ends coach George] Godsey got involved.
"Then I remember literally a minute later, they were like, 'Alright, when we go back out, let’s run this play.' Two heated, passionate guys who wanted to win the game. That’s what both those guys are all about."
Hoyer said now that O'Brien is a head coach, he's cooled off a bit. Had the teapot made its way down to Houston -- "I know it's up there still," Hoyer said -- the opportunities to add to it would be fewer and farther between.
"I think he’s more level-headed," Hoyer said. "But you know, I think he’s got to be more of a leader of the team, so he’s definitely, like I said, you guys saw Hard Knocks, you could see the language. But I can’t really remember one that probably would have qualified to get on the teapot."