The mom of US hero and former NFL participant Pat Tillman slammed ESPN’s determination to honor Prince Harry with the award named after her son.
Mary Tillman mentioned she was by no means consulted by the sports activities community to present the Duke of Sussex the Pat Tillman Award, which honors the late NFL safety-turned-Military Ranger who enlisted after the Sept. 11 terrorist assaults.
“I’m shocked as to why they would choose such a controversial and divisive particular person to obtain the award,” Mary told the Daily Mail.
“There are recipients which can be way more becoming,” she added. “There are people working within the veteran neighborhood which can be doing great issues to help veterans.”
The baffled mom additionally identified that Harry is already well-known and has obtained loads of awards in his life, so ESPN ought to have chosen another person who’s by no means been within the highlight.
The Pat Tillman Award has usually been given to unsung heroes, with final 12 months’s recipient being the Buffalo Payments coaching employees who revived a participant who had suffered a cardiac arrest in the course of a sport.
Mary’s condemnation was echoed by ESPN analysts Pat McAfee, who accused his personal community on Friday of “trying to piss people off” for choosing Prince Harry.
“It’s going to Prince Harry,” McAfee mentioned on his speak present, “who I don’t even suppose is a Prince anymore, proper? He mentioned don’t name me that? See, why does the ESPYs do that s–t?
“That is like truly essentially the most embarrassing factor I’ve seen in my whole life,” he added.
In choosing The Duke of Sussex and others to obtain honors through the upcoming ESPY Awards (Excellence in Sports activities Efficiency Yearly), Kate Jackson, VP, Manufacturing at ESPN, touted the recipients as those that have modified the world.
“These honorees have used their platforms to vary the world and make it extra inclusive for marginalized and struggling communities, demonstrating unbelievable resilience, positivity and perseverance, and we’re thrilled to have a good time them on the 2024 ESPYs,” Jackson mentioned.
Regardless of being marred in controversy over his royal life, Harry — who served the British army for 10 years, together with two excursions in Afghanistan as a helicopter pilot — has been lauded for his function in launching the Invictus Video games.
The Video games, created in 2014, function a multi-sport, Paralympic-styled video games for wounded or injured servicemen and veterans.
“This one is for our whole service neighborhood,” Harry mentioned after studying that he’ll obtain the Pat Tillman Award.
The Pat Tillman Award was created in 2014 and has been given to an individual who has served in ways in which echoes the legacy of Tillman.
Tillman, a former security for the Arizona Cardinals, served in Iraq after which Afghanistan earlier than he was killed by pleasant fireplace in 2004, with the soldier posthumously awarded the Silver Star and Purple Coronary heart for his service.
