Patriots owner Robert Kraft made it clear to the singer that he would cancel his tour dates at Gillette Stadium unless Macklemore was dropped from the bill. Other NFL owners were ready to do the same.
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft isn’t usually in the business of vetting supporting acts for concerts at his NFL team’s home stadium.
But last week, when he caught wind that one of the artists booked to play Ed Sheeran’s concert at Gillette Stadium was, in his view, using the tour to accuse Israel of committing genocide, Kraft decided he wouldn’t remain on the sidelines.
Kraft, the 85-year-old billionaire, had a longstanding relationship with Sheeran – the English musician had even played at his wedding in 2022. Over the course of a 40-minute conversation, Kraft explained that he wouldn’t host Macklemore, the outspoken American rapper, at his stadium.
More than that, several other National Football League owners were also ready to cancel Sheeran’s dates as long as Macklemore remained on the bill.
By then, the tightknit circle of NFL owners whose hulking mega-venues host everything from sold-out concerts to World Cup games had drawn a line in the sand.
David Tepper and Arthur Blank – the respective owners of the Carolina Panthers and Atlanta Falcons – had made up their minds, people familiar with the matter said.
Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie would soon reach the same conclusion, as the owners traded phone calls and prepared to address the situation.
Kraft told Sheeran that while he felt for the Palestinian people and understood it was a complicated situation, he believed that Macklemore’s comments constituted hate speech – not freedom of speech, according to a person familiar with the call.
The real problem in the conflict, he told Sheeran, was Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization. He noted that Macklemore had previously been accused of antisemitism in 2014 for wearing a costume that featured Jewish stereotypes such as a beard and oversize hook nose.
Macklemore apologized at the time and said he didn’t intend to impersonate a Jewish person. A spokeswoman for Macklemore declined to comment.
Faced with the prospect of getting barred from some of his biggest stops, Sheeran’s promoter dropped Macklemore – and suddenly the tour was thrown into chaos. Other supporting acts, including Sheeran’s backing band, later withdrew in solidarity with Macklemore.
The episode has thrust Sheeran – one of the biggest touring acts in the music industry, with a catalog of warm-and-fuzzy pop hits – into the center of a free-speech debate around an issue dividing America.