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In separate phone calls to Sheeran and the promoter of the singer’s shows next week at Gillette, the Patriots owner said Macklemore would not be welcome in Foxborough due to his statements in New Jersey and “a broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery that has been deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community.” Further, according to a message posted by Macklemore, Kraft “rallied” owners of other venues on Sheeran’s tour to ban the rapper. ( The Wall Street Journal reported that David Tepper, Arthur Blank, and Jeffrey Lurie — owners of the Carolina Panthers, Atlanta Falcons, and Philadelphia Eagles — were the first NFL owners to fall in line.) The aftershock has been extreme. A bond has formed between the NFL owner and Sheeran, leading the English singer to not only attend Kraft’s 2022 wedding to Dana Blumberg , but to perform his song “ Perfect ” for the couple’s first dance and duet with John on “Candle in the Wind.” Kraft has long relished, and leveraged, his celebrity status, whether it’s sitting courtside at the NBA Finals, attending Oscar parties , or being name-checked in songs by Drake and Meek Mill, a rapper whom the Patriots owner once visited in prison and later worked with on criminal justice issues. (For Kraft’s 80th birthday, Mill, Jay-Z, and Philadelphia 76ers owner Michael Rubin presented the Patriots owner with a blue Bentley Continental GT Speed Convertible , a car that costs more than $400,000.) Some of Kraft’s pals are also powerful. Over the past two decades, Kraft donated millions of dollars to Columbia University, his alma mater, for an on-campus center for Jewish students.
