Midfielder has hit the ground running for league leaders since signing on loan from Brum and reckons Derek McInnes shares many of the same leadership qualities as Brady.
06:00, 15 Feb 2026
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Marc Leonard got a first hand feel for the mentality required to be the best when American Football legend Tom Brady got involved at Birmingham.
The New England Patriots hero is a hands-on investor at Brum and thought nothing of going into the dressing room to share his experience from a 22-year spell in Grid Iron that brought seven Super Bowl titles.
As motivational speakers and standard setters go Leonard was blown away by the man widely regarded as the greatest the sport has ever seen.
But since he’s touched down at Tynecastle on loan from Birmingham, the Hearts midfielder insists he feels the exact same qualities oozing out of Derek McInnes as the Jambos edge closer to the end zone in a remarkable title race.
Leonard decided to head back north to the club where he spent four years as a kid in search of game time and the chance of playing a part in Hearts’ history.
The next step towards that arrives in this afternoon’s top of the table showdown with Rangers at Ibrox. And the 24-year-old is hungry to deliver thanks to a winner’s mindset bolstered by Brady.
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NFL legend Tom Brady
He said: “I met him a few times. He came to a couple of the games. Aye, quite surreal, just weird seeing him up close, to be honest.
“He was a really good speaker. He was really motivational, the other sort of co-owner with him was Tom Wagner.
“The two of them were quite heavily involved, and they were both good motivational speakers.
“They would speak before big games, and after losses sometimes they'd maybe call in during the week and gee you up if you needed it.
"The standards there are extremely high. It’s a huge club with great facilities and obviously we achieved a lot last year because of how high we drove the standards.
“We had six games to go and we'd already won the league, and we never lost any of them. I think that cements how high the standard was.
“But the standards here are extremely high and that's driven through the manager, to the assistants, to every staff that takes part in the training sessions, not to let it dip because, as we all know, Celtic Rangers are great teams, huge clubs and if they smell blood, then that's going to be the problem.
“So we need to stay on top of it, even if it's not actually a game day. It's every single day getting ready for it.
“The manager here is very motivational too. I understood that straight away from when I spoke to him on the phone.
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Derek McInnes(Image: SNS Group)
“I realised that he was someone that instils a lot of faith and a lot of trust in the players. I mean, I hadn't even trained here, and he was already instilling that sort of faith and trust in me, so it was great.
“Man management is probably the most important thing. When you get the right group of players, I would assume that you can kind of let them deal with a lot of things, but I think the man management of trying to keep a squad, such a big squad, like you said, happy and together, and he does it so effortlessly, from what I've seen.
“Every single player, he speaks to everybody every day, comes up, speaks to you in the morning - he sees you at training. It just keeps everybody together and it harmonises us all so well.
“I’m still contracted to Birmingham but I wanted to play more football and I think the opportunity that came up, I don't think anyone would have turned that down to be part of this team that's sitting top of the league right now.”
Leonard spent two years as a kid at Ibrox, sandwiched in between two spells at Hearts before moving down south.
He came through the same group as Billy Gilmour and Nathan Patterson. But he admits the lure of Hearts was so strong even at that age that he ended up back in the Jambos academy.
Leonard said: “I was there maybe two years, three years, max. Nathan Patterson and Billy were in the team. There were a lot of good players. We had a really good team.
“We all represented Scotland in that together as well, and we all went to school together.
“But I left and came back here. It was just for the travelling that it was a bit easier for my family to get me to Rangers. I was there for a while, and like I said, I think you just want to play all the time when you're that age, especially.
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Marc Leonard at Hearts
“It doesn't really change, so I missed Hearts. I loved it here, and I got the opportunity to come back when Roger (Arnott) was the academy manager. I came back and I just loved it.”
Now a fully fledged first teamer at Tynecastle, Leonard has the chance to deliver what could be a fatal blow to Rangers’ title hopes this afternoon.
Should Hearts inflict a third defeat on the Ibrox side from three games this season it would open up an eight point gap with 11 games to go.
Hot on the heels of his debut against Celtic and last week’s derby win over Hibs, the big games just keep coming.
And Leonard said: “Definitely. None more so than this. We've all watched the games, watched the results midweek. We're looking forward to this and we're in a good place.
“It’s all to do with the togetherness and the spirit and the standards that are being driven every day, because obviously when you're top of the league, it can get a little bit complacent or whatever.
“But the standards every single day have been driven by the senior players, and even the boys who have been injured have such an input and such a voice through all the training days and all the game days.
“It’s just a team environment that I haven't really experienced before where absolutely everyone's on the same page, regardless if they're playing not playing injured, whatever.”
Leonard still has two years left on his deal at Birmingham. But he’s not looking beyond the next few massive months in Gorgie when asked about his future.
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He said: “Look, I'm completely unsure. I've got two and a half years left at Birmingham as it stands and I do really enjoy it there. I just thought at that time I needed to play some more football so I'm happy where I am.”