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The New England Patriots have called out the Miami Dolphins, Buffalo Bills, and New York Jets. Not for anything on the field, but rather for a charitable purpose off the field. In the Ice Bucket Challenge, which has been floating around Twitter and Facebook recently, Patriots owner Robert Kraft took aim at the AFC East.
The Ice Bucket Challenge is being done to raise awareness of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. The idea, which began a couple of weeks ago at Boston College, where former captain of the baseball team Pete Frates, who was diagnosed with ALS in 2012, poured a bucket of ice water over his head, and dared a few others to try it, is to accept the challenge of pouring ice water over yourself, or donate money to the ALS Association. Once the videos hit YouTube, the magic began.
As of yesterday, the ALS Association was reporting an increase in donations from $1.12 million over the past two weeks in 2013, to over $4 million over the same time period this year. Since July 29, the ALS Association has received donations from over 70,000 new donors.
On Monday, New York Giants president John Mera accepted the Ice Bucket Challenge from wide receiver Victor Cruz. Mera then challenged Patriots coach Bill Belichik, owner Robert Craft, and Jets owner Woody Johnson to do the same.
The Patriots responded by doing the challenge as a team:
[Editor's Note: As Mr. Kraft says in the video, the team is making a donation to ALS as well as pouring the ice water on their heads. Many of the individual people and organizations who are taking part in the Ice Bucket Challenge are doing both. This is not an attempt ot not donate by pouring water on their heads.]
Now it's up to the Dolphins to respond. Will the do it? How? When? We shall see.
(You can see the entire Patriots' produced video on the team website.)