Did the Baltimore Ravens reject a $500 million sponsorship deal offered by Tesla or Elon Musk? No, that's not true: This is one of a series of clickbait fake news items falsely declaring Musk and/or Tesla is sinking millions into NFL teams like the Dallas Cowboys or New York Jets. Musk handles all PR for all his companies and has made no such announcement, nor does the Tesla account on X, which Musk also owns and uses for Tesla announcements, include any such announcement.
The August 12, 2025 post (archived here) was published on the Sports Top News website, titled: "BREAKING: Baltimore Ravens Stun the NFL World by Rejecting Elon Musk's $500 Million Tesla Sponsorship Offer." The post opened:
In a move that has stunned the sports world and sent shockwaves across social media, the Baltimore Ravens have rejected a staggering $500 million sponsorship
This is what the post looked like on the website at the time this fact check was written:
No Tesla Announcement
Using keywords from the post, Lead Stories hand-searched the preceding month of posts on the Tesla account on X, which Musk also owns and which Tesla uses for upbeat public statements about the car-maker. There was no announcement of any NFL sponsorship.
Similarly, a hand search of Musk's X account featured no posts about a Ravens sponsorship during the month preceding the clickbait post.
No Ravens Announcement
Using keywords from the post, Lead Stories searched the Baltimore Ravens website for a public statement on a Tesla offer. None was found.
Lead Stories reached out to the media contact listed on the Ravens website to ask for response to the claim. This fact check will be updated, as relevant, when the Ravens reply.
No News Reports
Using keywords from the post, Lead Stories searched Google News' index of thousands of news websites and found no reports . Similarly, the Yahoo! News index of partner news sites and news services returned no fact-based reporting on a Tesla sponsorship offer to the Ravens. Both searches turned up copies of the clickbait post, but no reporting by the business journalists who cover Musk and Tesla, nor by sports and business-of-sports journalists whose full-time job is coverage of the NFL.
As the wealthiest human on earth and a one-time political ally of President Donald Trump, Musk is the subject of non-stop news reporting, which makes it unlikely his carmaker could make an offer to sponsor an NFL team and be rejected in harsh and political terms, without it being a major story.
Musk/Tesla/NFL Clickbait
The Ravens post was the latest in a series, with previous fake posts claiming Musk sought to buy the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Jets.
