Robert Kraft bans Macklemore from Gillette Stadium amid claims of wider influence
This week New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft banned Macklemore from supporting Ed Sheeran at the Patriots’ Gillette Stadium. Macklemore says Kraft also appeared to influence other NFL owners to prevent him from performing on most of Sheeran’s other stadium dates.
The decision arrives against a backdrop the article describes as a broader national moment of protest that followed the murder of George Floyd, during which NFL commissioner Roger Goodell admitted his league was "wrong" for not listening to players protesting police brutality. The league’s handling of those protests, and the earlier sidelining of Colin Kaepernick, are cited as historical context for the current dispute. Kraft has cultivated a public image as a socially conscious owner who has made donations to both Republicans and Democrats, and his long association with the Patriots includes buying the team from James Orthwein in 1994 and building what the article calls the NFL’s only 100% privately financed stadium after earlier agreeing in 1998 to accept public money from the Connecticut legislature.
Kraft issued a statement saying the decision to stop Macklemore from performing at Gillette was driven by both Macklemore’s "recent actions" and "a broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery that we believe has been deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community". Macklemore alleges that Kraft’s intervention went beyond Gillette, appearing to block him from dates in Philadelphia, Dallas, Tampa, Charlotte, Indianapolis and Atlanta.
The article notes that Macklemore apologized in 2014 after wearing a wig, beard and hooked nose during a Seattle concert, a costume critics described as an anti-semitic caricature. That prior incident is cited by those who explain Kraft’s citing of a "broader history" of offensive imagery when describing his reasons for the ban.
The piece contrasts Kraft’s recent action with his earlier public interventions and philanthropic gestures: it records that Kraft and his late wife Myra renounced the rights to Christian Peter after domestic violence accusations, supported Patriots players Devin and Jason McCourty in criminal justice reform advocacy, assisted in efforts to secure the release of rapper Meek Mill, and lent the team’s plane to students traveling to Washington to protest gun violence following the Parkland school shooting. The article also records that Kraft sent his private plane to China to help transport shipments of N-95 masks to the United States.
Supporters of Kraft have argued the owner did not violate the First Amendment because he owns Gillette Stadium and paid for it privately, the article reports. It also says Kraft is accused of extending his influence beyond his property by allegedly calling ahead to other stadiums; those venues, the article states, are largely publicly financed and therefore belong to the taxpaying public, with public space subject to First Amendment protections.
The article records Kraft’s response to the backlash: an offer of a $2m donation to unspecified charities in the Middle East without reinstating Macklemore. It also recounts Kraft’s past political ties, saying he gave Donald Trump $1m for his first inauguration, later said in 2024 that he had not spoken to the president since the January 6 attack, yet sat in the Kennedy Center presidential box next to Trump in January for a screening of the Amazon Studios film Melania; the article adds that Kraft’s wife Dana Blumberg sits on the Kennedy Center board and was part of a unanimous vote mentioned in the piece to close the center unless Trump’s name is added.
Ed Sheeran’s tour has seen immediate fallout: the article reports that supporting acts resigned from the tour in solidarity with Macklemore, and Kraft has not reinstated Macklemore despite the stated $2m donation.