Prince Harry’s Pat Tillman Award Draws Public Flak. Tillman’s Mother Shocked by ESPN’s Choice.

Prince Harry was selected by ESPN as this year’s recipient of the Pat Tillman Service Awards, and not everyone’s happy with the news. The Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly awards show (ESPYs) chooses one recipient each year but their choice of Prince Harry is drawing flak not just from members of the public but from Pat Tillman’s mother, Mary Tillman herself. 

Pat Tillman is a celebrated American hero who played for the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League but left his lucrative sports career to enlist in the United States Army in May 2002 with his brother Kevin. Their decision came following the previous year’s 9/11 terror attacks in the US. Tillman was, unfortunately, killed in a friendly fire in 2004 during a tour of duty in Afghanistan. 

Tillman told a reporter after 9/11, “At times like this you stop and think about just how good we have it, what kind of system we live in, and the freedoms we are allowed. A lot of my family has gone and fought in wars and I really haven’t done a damn thing.”

His sacrifice and patriotism garnered the respect and admiration of many Americans and sports fans worldwide and the Pat Tillman Service Award was created to honor those who are continuing Tillman’s legacy of service in relation to sports. 

The British prince is being recognized for his Invictus Games efforts but critics believe that he does not represent the ideals that Pat Tillman lived and died for. Invictus Games is a sports tournament for injured soldiers that Prince Harry helped put into motion 10 years ago along with his brother Prince William and sister-in-law Princess Catherine of Wales

The common sentiment of those against him getting the award is that Pat Tillman gave up a life of fortune and fame to serve his country while Prince Harry did the opposite – leaving a life of royal and military service to pursue Hollywood and media fame and influence.

The couple now lives in their Montecito mansion in California and have been estranged from their families following a series of scathing allegations they aired in public via their Oprah interview, their Netflix series Harry & Meghan, his memoir Spare, and in other media interviews. 

Tillman’s mom Mary Tillman told the Daily Mail, “I was shocked as to why they would select such a controversial and divisive individual to receive the award”. She added that she was not consulted about their choice of awardee and that “There are recipients that are far more fitting.”

One YouTube commenter shares, “He doesn’t deserve this award, it should go to someone who really deserves it.” Another critic says, “Harry has been collecting paid awards left and right in the US since his arrival. There are far more worthy American individuals who deserve the Pat Tillman award. Pat Tillman fought for his country and gave his life. Harry ran away from his country and abandoned all civic duties…”

There has been an online petition to ask ESPN to reconsider their choice but ESPN says they stand by their decision in an email they sent to The Times, “ESPN, with the support of the Tillman Foundation, is honoring Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, specifically for the work of the Invictus Games Foundation as it celebrates its 10th year promoting healing through the power of sport for military service members and veterans around the world.”

Prince Harry has yet to issue an official statement.