About

Tom Brady's Courtroom Sketch is a photoshop meme based on a coarsely drawn portrait of the New England Patriots' star quarterback in a courtroom sketch produced at the first court appearance of Brady in a settlement lawsuit against the National Football League (NFL) for his four-game suspension penalty in the aftermath of Deflategate.

Origin

On August 12th, Tom Brady appeared at a public hearing in a New York City courtroom to discuss a potential settlement with the NFL regarding his involvement in Deflategate and the penalty of a four-game suspension. During the proceedings, several sketches of the both parties were drawn by New York City courtroom sketch artist Jane Rosenberg, one of which featured a moody and self-resigned looking portrait of Tom Brady.

At 10:11 a.m. (EST), Boston-based reporter Jim Armstrong^[16] for CBS-affiliate WBZ tweeted the images of Brady from the courthouse.

Background

On May 11th, 2015, the NFL announced the suspension of Tom Brady for the first four games in the upcoming season after ruling the athlete was involved in the intentional deflation of regulation footballs towards the team's advantage. The decision was promptly appealed by the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) on behalf of Brady, however, on July 28th, it was upheld by the NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. The next day, Tom Brady and the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) filed an injunction against the NFL in federal court in order to prevent the league from enforcing the four-game suspension of the Patriots' star quarterback.

Spread

By early afternoon, shortly after the adjournment of the public portion of the hearing, football fans and others following the news story began poking fun at the hand-drawn depiction of Brady in one of the courtroom sketches, particularly for his skeletal appearance and saddened facial expression. At 1:36 p.m. (ET), SB Nation^[3] highlighted the courtroom sketch in an article titled "Tom Brady's face melted at the DeflateGate hearing, according to this courtroom sketch," which included the original drawing and a couple of photoshopped parodies that emerged on Twitter shortly after its publication. In the following hours, dozens of photoshopped parodies featuring the portrait of Tom Brady continued to surface on the microblogging platform.

News Media Coverage

Several sports news blogs,^{[1][2][7][8][9]} viral news sites^[3][4][5][6] and major U.S. news publications^{[10][11][12][13][15]} covered the courtroom sketch as a side story spun off from the NFL court hearing with many comparisons made to the Botched Ecce Homo painting that went viral in 2012. Later that same day, Vice^[11] and The Boston Globe^[14] interviewed the courtroom sketch artist Jane Rosenberg about her drawing, during which she was quoted as saying:

"Tell Tom Brady, I'm sorry. He's a very good looking guy and if I didn't make him look good enough, I'll try harder next time."

"I don’t tend to flatter people and make them look beautiful."

Various Examples

Search Interest

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External References