A court artist's sketch of NFL quarterback Tom Brady in federal court has gone viral after the drawing portrayed an unflattering version of the league's biggest name.
Brady was in court over the deflate-gate saga that has dominated NFL headlines ahead of the new season.
The four-time Super Bowl champion is fighting a four-game suspension handed down by the NFL after it was found footballs he used in the AFL championship win over the Indianapolis Colts last season were underinflated.
The sketch was drawn by Jane Rosenberg and the image instantly went viral with comparisons made with Quasimodo and Michael Jackson's Thriller video.
Rosenberg defended her work, telling the Boston Herald: "I don't try to be different, I try to draw what I see. So that's what I did.
"I wanted to make sure I got Roger Goodell and Brady in the same sketch because they weren't sitting that close to each other. I did a wide shot that included the judge because I thought he was pretty important."
She said it was challenging as Brady "seemed to be on his cell phone most of the time, looking down at his phone for most of the day. He didn't look up very much."?
Meanwhile, the judge put the NFL on the defensive over its four-game suspension Brady, demanding to know what evidence directly links Brady to deflating footballs and belittling the drama of the controversy.
Judge Richard M. Berman in Manhattan repeatedly asked NFL lawyer Daniel L. Nash for direct evidence as he gave both sides a chance to state their case in the first hearing before him.
The NFL sued two weeks ago asking for Berman to declare that its punishment of Brady was properly carried out. The players' union countersued, asking him to nullify the suspension.
Berman noted that Brady's statistics were better in the second half of the Patriots' 45-7 defeat of the Indianapolis Colts in the Jan. 18 AFC championship game than in the first half, when the balls were found to have been underinflated.
"You might say (Brady) got no better advantage from the under-inflation," the judge said.
Nash said there was "considerable evidence Mr. Brady clearly knew about this," but he conceded there was no "smoking gun."
At one point, Berman seemed to be trying to defuse the controversy, saying: "This Deflategate. I'm not sure where the 'gate' comes from."
With AP