No Days Off: A New Documentary Shows Tom Brady's First Day At Birmingham And Immediately Questioning Wayne Rooney's Work Ethic As Manager

[Source] - Brady has a tour of the facility before sitting down with Rooney, who tells the American how he would show up to training at 9am during the summer’s pre-season preparations. Brady subtly responds by telling Rooney he would get to the team’s facility at 6 am. Whether intentional or not, it demonstrates Brady’s competitive edge.

He talks about the ownership’s priorities for the club, mentioning “resilience”, “hard work,” and “discipline”. As he’s leaving the training ground, the camera picks up Brady saying that he is “a little worried about our head coach’s work ethic”. Questioning Rooney’s dedication, a global sporting superstar as a player in his own right, and ultimately allowing that to be publicised in the documentary’s final edit, is a telling decision. It undoubtedly reflects strongly on his emotional investment in the Birmingham project, but his indifference towards Rooney’s prior achievements in assessing his character is unusual from a former athlete, particularly concerning someone as successful in their respective discipline.

I know everything gets a documentary these days, but fuck it, I'm still going to watch. This is the newest one with Tom Brady and his investment with Birmingham City. Naturally it starts with the only possible thing here for Tom Brady. Questioning Wayne Rooney's work ethic as a manager, especially since he gets to training at 9am. Not good enough! I know Tom Brady says he would get there at 6am, Eli probably gets there at 5:30 at least two years. I digress though. This is about Tom Brady and trying to bring Birmingham City back to the Premier League. 

Hard to argue that Brady was wrong though. Rooney took over in October 2023 for John Eustace who had the team in 6th place in the Championship. In five games with Rooney in charge they fell to 18th place and Rooney was fired in January 2024. Yeah, I think Brady going to the ownership group with something like questioning work ethic and all the losing would do it. 

I actually find the American investment into these teams intriguing. We know about Wrexham and how they had more money than anyone for the first two promotions. We know about Big Cat and Swansea, which really set the tone for everyone. We now have Tom Brady and this group with Birmingham. They were the ones who had the most money this past year in EFL League One, won the league and got promotion (with Wrexham) to the Championship. 

Hilarious though that Brady questioned Wayne Rooney's work ethic. Needless to say there are some Brits pissed off about this, even if Birmingham fans said Rooney being in charge was a major reason they got relegated. But we're talking about a former elite player at the highest level in Rooney being called out by Brady.