Revealed: How Tom Brady’s ‘passion’ is helping Birmingham become an ‘elite club’ – with NFL legend in regular contact with Blues despite rarely attending games

The seven-time Super Bowl winner became a shock addition to the board at St Andrew’s when acquiring a stake in August 2023. He has headed to the United Kingdom on a couple of occasions, but has not taken a leaf out of Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s book at Wrexham when it comes to paying regular visits to British shores.

Birmingham have, however, worked motivational quotes from the legendary quarterback onto the walls of their training base, while TBRx branding figures prominently and a team of specialists from that company are now based in the West Midlands.

Blues boss Chris Davies has revealed how involved Brady is on a weekly basis, saying of having vast experience of life at the very top of professional sport on the other end of a phone call: “That’s been really good so far. I speak to Tom regularly, he has a real passion for what we’re doing, a real interest, and wants to help with any insights that he can. I’m always talking to him and that’s useful. Tom thinks there needs to be good standards in place and we need to be consistent with that. That 24 hours after a game is really critical for the players to recover, Tom is a big advocate of that. He’s big on that side of things and it’s aligned with how I think on it.

“We need to have high standards around recovery and discipline in what we do in terms of preparation around their bodies to play that pressing game that I want to play, then recover and go again, and again, and again. You need to be really well drilled and organised with your routine day-to-day.”

Birmingham find themselves alongside Wrexham in League One this season, but big money has been invested in bouncing back into the Championship and the intention is to rise even higher than that. Davies added: “The journey is about trying to become an elite club. Trying to get to the top level first, then being really competitive. This is a long way away. The ambition and the possibility that lays ahead for this club is pretty clear. The backing and the support the owners have given so far is great but we’re day by day going to have to try and climb that mountain.

“Starting where we are, we’re a long way from those heights so we have to be humble enough to accept where we are. But it’s good to have a direction and a belief that we can go somewhere with this. Just doing what we want to do this season is going to be one hell of a challenge.”

Birmingham opened their 2024-25 campaign with a 1-1 draw at home to Reading, with an 87th-minute penalty from Alfie May rescuing a point in that contest. Brady is watching on from afar as he prepares to take on a new role as an NFL pundit for FOX Sports.