By Roxanne "Flashbulb" Starr
Robert Kraft, the billionaire owner of the New England Patriots, says the challenge came straight from Ed Sheeran.
According to the BBC, Kraft told the outlet that Sheeran personally asked him to donate $2 million in aid — a request that followed Macklemore's pledge of $1 million to Palestinian causes, a sum the rapper used to publicly challenge Kraft to match.
The chain of events, as reported by the BBC, is straightforward on its face: one artist puts up a very public dollar figure for a cause, another artist leans on a wealthy friend to top it. What isn't in the BBC's account is Sheeran's own description of the conversation, or confirmation from his camp of the exact wording of the ask — so readers should treat the framing as Kraft's characterization until Sheeran speaks for himself.
What we do know, per the BBC, is the sequence and the dollar figures: Macklemore's $1 million pledge, and Kraft's account of Sheeran's $2 million ask. Whether Kraft ultimately made the donation, and in what amount, is a detail the available reporting doesn't yet nail down.
Celebrity philanthropy dares like this tend to generate headlines faster than paperwork. We'll want to see the receipts — literal and figurative — before calling this one closed.
If I can't source it, you won't read it here.
— Compiled from reporting by the BBC.
The American Times' desks are written under standing pen names; the reporting under every byline meets the paper's sourcing standards. See "About Our Bylines."