SPECIAL INTERVIEW: Tom Brady on Wrexham, Rooney & Birmingham Super Bowl

0:01This is a Global Player original podcast.

0:30try and persuade you that it'd be quite good to come to Birmingham. I would imagine that that kind of gets most deals over the line, doesn't it? I think at times it's maybe helped, but I don't know. What about Super Bowl coming to Birmingham? That would be pretty amazing. We've got Sporting Royalty on the podcast today. He's so famous, Mark is actually taking a break from his holiday just for this. That's how much I want to talk to Tom Brady, seven-time Super Bowl champion, five-time Super Bowl MVP and a man who rewrote the history books in American sport.

1:04Tom Brady:He cuts it upfield. Driving forward. He's diving to the goal line. It's not a touchdown. They did it. And a title for the Patriots. I can't believe it. They have completed the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history. Led by the greatest quarterback in Super Bowl and NFL Annals. One more ring. These days, he's fully invested in our kind of football as a minority owner of Birmingham City. So do the two footballs have more in common than meets the eye? What was it like to sack Wayne Rooney after a 21-year run of winning seasons in the NFL? How did Brady take relegation in his first season at Birmingham?

1:45And with plans for a£3 billion stadium redevelopment, could they ever get a Super Bowl to the Midlands? I was about to do my Birmingham accent then, but you'll be pleased to know I decided against it. I was about to say, me duke. And with the Wrexham rivalry brewing, two sets of superstar owners, both promoted this year, both with their eyes on the prize of the Premier League. How is Brady going to take that American audience for himself? Wrexham, we're coming for your ass. Welcome to the Sports Agency.

2:26Tom Brady:The Sports Agents with Gabby Logan and Mark Chapman. Hello, Mark. Hi, Gabby. We're crossing over on this one as you get ready for a holiday and I bring mine to an end. And you bring your fresh tan and your linen shirt back to the UK. You look like our man in Havana today, all tanned and rested. It is good to have you back. Nothing to see here in the UK. Did you have your eye on what was happening over the last weekend? I mean, I know, obviously, what's happened and I've read articles and stuff, but I've had a sport-free zone for two weeks. But it can never be sport-free, can it? Because you look at the clips and you read the articles and you see everything that's happened.

3:08Yeah, so you know the Lions have won their series. The Lionesses have won their second European Championship back-to-back. So I don't need to fill you in on all that. Good. Okay. No, no. How's Greek sport? Go to the final test. I haven't seen a single thing of Greek sports. Well, you can catch up with all our past shows, Mark and everyone else on YouTube, Global Player, or wherever you get your podcasts. Make sure to follow and subscribe to the pod and leave us a rating and review. Get in touch on our socials or at the sportsagents at global.com. I've kept that little chat very, very short because I think I know what you want to do today.

3:42The only person we really need to hear from, and it's not us two rambling pretty long, it is seven time Super Bowl winner Tom Brady he's next The Sports Agents The takeover of Birmingham City has completed NFL legend Tom Brady has become a minority owner in the team He was a sportsman wasn't he Tom Brady who was he probably what he knows about football you could put on a postage stand what the f*** am I afraid of this is not a Mandy thing this is like let's get our elbows dirty The guys on that soccer team, they've got something coming. He rewrote the history books in the NFL. The way we've been sold it, we're going to the top.

4:24We're trying to make Birmingham City a world-class team. If you can't say it, you can't do it. You guys need to come up with a name for me, like my saviour.

4:35Tom Brady, welcome to the Sports Agents. Great guys, great to be with you. That's the name of the podcast, by the way. We're not sports agents. We're not going to try and sign you up here. It sounds fun. I'm intrigued to know when you first sold the idea of Birmingham City, what you knew, how long you had to kind of deliberate over it. What were the thought processes going through your mind? Well, it's a great club and it's got 150 year history and a lot of great success. It just hasn't been that recently. And it's really been a great thing to be a part of personally, certainly professionally.

5:13I stepped out of playing in a professional role. But when I finished, I got into a different type of role, but still very much involved in the things that I love, which is team, culture, competitiveness, winning. And Birmingham City was a great opportunity to put that to the test. And we've learned a lot the first few years of ownership. And certainly, I think we put ourselves in a good position to be successful this year. But at the same time, the players, the staff, the coaches, the organization, they have to go out there every single day and put themselves to the test. So it's an exciting time in Birmingham.

5:49That's for sure. Are you more competitive as an owner or as a player? Certainly as a player, I was very competitive. So I could play the game in a much bigger way down there on the field. But in this part, I'm very happy to play the role that I'm at. Is there a challenge for you in being involved in a club or a franchise, if I look where you're involved in the NFL with the Raiders as well, of trying to build something back up rather than a project being near the top already? Sure. I think every situation is a little bit different. Again, what speaks to me? And I think for me, when I get out of bed every day, what am I motivated to do?

6:28And that's certainly in this phase of my life, it's try to help other people be successful. And it doesn't matter where you're at. The world is very small at this point. With the digital age, everything is kind of one touch away. And even though games are being played in the UK, they're still very much televised here in America. We see everything and there's great interest in everything sports related. And again, I've had so many years involved and I see the very best that sports brings out in people and in communities. And that's what I want to be a part of. And this happens to be in Birmingham.

7:04And it's got, again, this great history of this club. There's been so many successful professional athletes come out of this club and we want to restore it to the glory that it's been in the past. Part of your answer there was something that JJ Watt said exactly the same thing to me when I was interviewing him about Burnley, about wanting to give something back to helping other people be successful. Do you think that comes from your background and how your NFL franchise encourage your community work? Yeah, and that's come directly from my life. And I look at the mentors that have come into my life at different points and realize that's the only reason why I had the professional success that I did.

7:50It took so many people along the way to point things out to me, whether it was a physical thing, whether it was a mental thing, whether it was something emotional, whether it was about my competitiveness that allowed me to look within myself to find answers within myself that enabled me to try something different and that turned out to be successful. And with that success came self-confidence and self-esteem. And that's what you try to do. You try to pay it forward. You try to build people up because in the end, you can only play this sport for so long, but how you impact people beyond that can create so many different opportunities in your life.

8:33And that points to the culture around the club as well, doesn't it? How much can you influence individuals, players, or do you see your role as an overarching culture that you want the club to be synonymous with as part of the ownership? Well, I would say both. And again, part of my life is wherever I walk around in America, and I was just obviously in Europe for quite a bit over the last six weeks, you know, everyone's always got a lot of questions and I'm happy to answer them because I want to see other people be successful. And I have a lot of American athletes. I have American quarterbacks.

9:09I have owners of American clubs. I have fans that ask me questions. I have, you know, my kids ask me questions. There's so many people. And it's just because, again, I've had a lot of experience gained over a long period of time in sports that people look to and say, OK, I think Tom would be someone that would be good to ask this question to. So the fact that I can do that with organizations that I'm involved in, that brings me a lot of joy. And I feel a great sense of purpose in doing that. And again, I want to see on an individual level, these players be successful. I want to see these coaches and these managers be successful.

9:45I want to see the entire organization be a part of winning because it does change your life in so many great ways. And it's always the pursuit of what you're trying to accomplish that can bring us so much joy. It's never, and the interesting part is once you achieve something, it's amazing. But at the same time, it's very fleeting as well. And then you've got to find a different purpose to reinvigorate yourself. That last point that you said there, Scotty Scheffler said something really interesting last week. Stop name dropping. No, but he did. No, I didn't interview. I didn't interview Scotty Sheffler.

10:18That was in his press conference. Scotty Sheffler said, golf isn't fulfilling. As soon as you win something, you're onto the next thing. And then you wonder why I wanted to win something so much. Did you allow yourself to enjoy your victories? And therefore, do you want your players and your staff and your coaches to enjoy their victory? Oh, absolutely. I believe there's a lot of joy in winning. I think there's a lot of joy in the process of winning too, certainly when you love what you do. I believe there's a lot of joy in life with your family and your children and your parents and your significant other.

10:51There's a lot of joy doing good things in the community. There's good things doing thing as part of your professional career. All these moments to me encompass a very joyful, happy life. So it's never one thing. It's accumulation of a lot of different things that add up. No one thing is ever going to bring you total fulfillment in life. I think that's pretty unrealistic. I think you wake up every day trying to make great choices. I was very fortunate to do something I love to do as a career and as a sport. You know, I was a kid in America that grew up with a great dream of praying professional and I was able to accomplish it.

11:25There's a lot of young English footballers that want to grow up and be a professional footballer. And the fact that they get to accomplish that is a dream come true. Is that going to mean, in my opinion, that they're going to be totally fulfilled? No, they're going to have to continue to find things every day that bring them joy. And that's could be relationships and emotional connection with their teammates. It could be personal fulfillment in experiencing new things and trying hard on accomplishing them, whatever they may be. So, you know, that's what our life ends up being made up of a lot of different new experiences that challenge us.

12:00And with those challenges come a lot of growth. As someone who did experience so much success in your playing career. How have you found the challenging moments so far as an owner of Birmingham City in terms of relegation, having to sack manager, difficult decisions that impact people individually and also a community, you know, experiencing dropping down a division? And obviously that's something I imagine is a slightly new experience for you because in a franchise system in the NFL, you don't have that, do you, at the end of the season? No, you don't drop down in American sports. I do think there's a great sense of accountability based on performance.

12:40And you don't just get to qualify because you qualify the year before you have to earn it every single year. And that should be a very motivating factor for every player and coach in the organization that they realize they have to bring it every single year to be successful. So I think that's a very natural part of, again, a growth process that you are going to face adversities along the way. Nothing is going to be a linear path to success. Maybe for a month it might be that way, but you're going to face adversities along the way. So even in some of the greatest years I ever had, I faced a ton of adversity.

13:18And when I look back at those years, I'm very proud of what we accomplished because of what we overcame. And I think when you look at those challenges or many crises as opportunities for growth, then you certainly see them as a positive. And again, those positives over a period of time can bring you so much joy and happiness because you are experiencing personal growth when you're dealing with these adversities in your career. I always say within the NFL, head coaches tend to be given time. They would tend to be given more than one season, even if they struggle in their first season. So how hard did you find having to dismiss a manager like Wayne Rooney, who didn't get one season, two seasons?

14:04Is that quite difficult for you, given the culture that you come from sporting-wise? Yeah, definitely. I think that you always want to give people opportunities to be successful and you want to surround them in different ways through the values of the organization so that they can come in and just focus on what they need to do. So, you know, again, whatever happened two years ago or a year ago makes really no impact on where we're at now. I think this club has a great manager. The expectations and standards have been set at a different level. and we're going into this championship season with great excitement, but also with very high expectations.

14:42And everyone within the club knows those expectations. And we've got to go out there and perform. And it starts August 8th against Hipswich. What are they? What are those expectations? Well, it's going to be up to the players to go out there every day and give everything they got for each other to see what they can accomplish. And again, there's no predictions here to be made. Everyone, all teams in the championship feel like they're the ones that are going to want to be promoted by the end of the season. But, you know, it's not about saying it's about doing it. I always felt like as an athlete, well done is better than well said.

15:12And you've got to go out there with the right values and the commitment to each other on a daily basis to make the right decisions for each other. Because to move up and to be promoted to the Premier League is a very daunting task, but it can be achieved. But with that has to be daily choices, because if that's your priority, those choices have to lead to what those actions are. And you've got to make the right decisions on a daily basis. And we expect our manager to hold our players accountable and the players have to ultimately go out there and get it done. And we're here to support them in every way possible.

15:49More from Tom Brady after the break. The Sports Agents.

15:56Tom Brady:the sports agents with gabby logan and mark chapman in terms of the culture when you go to birmingham and you you speak to the players what are the similarities from the nfl teams that you've played with and and the clubs you've played with throughout your life actually in american football i'll tell you what they're exactly the same and again a lot of them are very young players i think that's one of the main differences is the ages of a lot of the players of our football club in Birmingham, they're still at a very young age and they have a lot of expectations for these young men. I see that as a real challenge because, you know, you haven't fully developed into the person you're going to be at the age of 19 or 20, you know, and that's oftentimes when a lot of these young players, you know, are having some of their most of their success.

16:46So to sustain that level of success over time, you do need great mentors. And you need people that you can really rely on for great advice that is really dependable and consistent. So, again, I think this club, in terms of what we want to achieve, is very similar to the teams that I always played for. You know, you want to be the best you can be. Now, how do you do that? Well, there's a lot of parts to that. You know, how you practice and how you train and how you recover, how you study the tactics for the game, how you're taught and how your ability to learn is and process that information so that when you go onto the pitch, you can be successful.

17:25And then you need to bring a competitive attitude to work every single day because the competition is tough and they have a competitive attitude. And every day you're in competition with your opponent. It's not just on game day. The preparation for games is extremely important. You need to be as prepared as possible to put your best foot forward every single game. And then ultimately, when the match comes, you've got 95 minutes to go out there and do it and to put exactly all that training to work. So that's what the goal is every single week. You talk about the players at Birmingham. Obviously, we're in the transfer window at the moment.

18:01If Birmingham are trying to get a deal over the line for a player, do they get you on the phone to talk to him? Well, at different times, I'm definitely involved in player procurement. And we're always in search of trying to figure out ways to upgrade the team. But again, we've got an entire staff dedicated to doing that. They're the ones that are trying to see where we need to be a little bit better. I would imagine, Tom, though, if they go to a player, Tom Brady's on the line just to try and persuade you that it'd be quite good to come to Birmingham. I would imagine that kind of gets most deals over the line, doesn't it?

18:35I think at times it's maybe help. Of course, comparisons will be made to Wrexham. And what a script, what a storyline, having these two very glamorous Hollywood kind of style owners, both in a league together. They've obviously come up through three promotions and there you are going to be facing each other. Has this kind of permeated American sporting culture? Is there going to be Team Brady and Team Ryan and Rob in the US pitting you against each other? I hope so. Yeah, and I'm totally good with that. You know, I think that the reality is we don't have much say in what's going on out there on the pitch on game day.

19:12So they're going to go out there and the players are going to be the ones that contribute to winning and losing. Who puts the ball in the back of the net and who's able to defend the other team from getting that ball in the back of our net? That's how it's going to be decided. So we're going to talk a lot of smack in the meantime between all of us because it's pretty fun theater. And I think there's some literally friendly side bets going on. But make no mistake, the people who are going to decide the fate of those games are the players wearing those jerseys. And big spending from both teams. Big spending, yeah.

19:40Yeah, we got to. We got to keep up with one another. I mean, given your business acumen, the American market will be huge for you, won't it? I mean, it's wonders for Wrexham already, and they've come from even further than where Birmingham are coming from. So the American market must be a huge target for you, surely. That must be one of the reasons for doing it. Sure. Well, Wrexham has, as I'd say, done an incredible job. I mean, you can't be anything but excited about what they've done for that club and to invest in the club where they were at and to create the awareness around the world for this amazing team in a pretty small city.

20:18and the way the players have responded has been nothing short of remarkable so i'm so impressed by wrexham what they do on the pitch off the pitch and again they're they're in a great position to succeed as well and obviously the spending doesn't just happen within the club and on the pitch you're you're planning huge changes obviously to a stadium that is going to have billions spent on it it could be one of the best stadiums in the country and could host potentially, you know, you would want one day, I imagine Champions League, Champions League finals. What about Super Bowl coming to Birmingham?

20:51That would be pretty amazing. That would be pretty amazing. I don't make all those decisions. I'm not sure how much I can influence those decisions. But I think that my partner, Tom Wagner, is an incredible man, incredible businessman. He has huge ambitions for the club, and I would never bet against anything that he tries to accomplish. you'd enjoy that Mark wouldn't you? No I'd always want the Super Bowl to be in America because that gives us great trips that's why I always want the Super Bowl over there no offence to Birmingham obviously but it's always nice to go to America for a Super Bowl given the crossover between the two again Tom NFL games come over here every year and they're actually being spread around more aren't they you know we see them in Brazil and in Germany and Spain and so on it's a very touchy subject with English football, taking games abroad.

21:42And I always feel kind of conflicted because I love the NFL games that come over here, but then I feel it's a bit odd for games to go over there. So you're a hypocrite. You're a hypocrite. What does that mean? Absolutely top. You spotted that straight away. It's a hard one, isn't it? It just depends. You know, you want to spread this game that you love. I think American football has done a great job of kind of picking and choosing different spots to create more awareness for this incredible sports. And the players really enjoy going to play in other venues. I was fortunate. I played in Wembley multiple times.

22:18I played in Mexico City. I played in Munich in my last season in Tampa. And they were some of the greatest experiences that I had because we got to share the love of our sport with a new audience. And you want to go out there and you want to showcase the very best of the sport to other parts of the world. So I always think it's a great idea. There's always games every year. You're going to see American football games in Europe. You're going to see them in South America. It'd be great. You know, the Club World Cup. I was just over watching PSG play Chelsea a few weeks ago at MetLife. So I just think this sports global brand awareness is very important as the world continues to get very small based on the digital era that we're in and the ability to see live sports all over the world at any time.

23:01Well, as global sports get smaller and smaller, Birmingham City are going to get bigger and bigger, I am sure, under your stewardship. We look forward to seeing what happens next in the next chapter, but already enjoying the series which drops on August the 1st on Prime Video, built in Birmingham. Thank you, Tom. Thank you, guys. Appreciate it. The Sports Agents.

23:23The Sports Agents.