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ESPN is defending its decision to honor Prince Harry during the upcoming ESPYs Awards.
Last week, ESPN announced that Prince Harry would be given the prestigious Pat Tillman Award for Service for his work with the Invictus Games, an international sporting event for wounded, injured servicemen and women.
In honor of his tireless work in making a positive impact for the veteran community through the power of sport, Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex will receive the Pat Tillman Award for Service, an award given to a person with a strong connection to sports who has served others in a way that echoes the legacy of the former NFL player and U.S. Army Ranger, Pat Tillman.
After serving for 10 years in the British Armed Forces, including two tours of duty in Afghanistan as a forward air controller and Apache helicopter pilot, Prince Harry founded The Invictus Games Foundation, continuing his service by creating an international platform to support wounded, injured, and sick servicemen and women – both active-duty and veterans – who are navigating both physical and invisible injuries
During Friday’s Pat McAfee Show, McAfee blasted ESPN for honoring Harry with the Pat Tillman Award.
“A lot of conversation about Pat Tillman’s name. American hero…Now there’s an award named after him, as there should be in the sports world because that is somebody who is the definition of selfless. It’s going to Prince Harry. Who I don’t even think is a prince anymore. See, why does the ESPYs do this sh–?”
“When you do something like this, you know the immediate reaction from humans and from sports fans and from people with common sense and brains, is gonna be like ‘Hey, don’t be putting our f’n guy with that guy.,”
"A lot of conversation about Pat Tillman’s name. American hero…Now there’s an award named after him, as there should be in the sports world because that is somebody who is the definition of selfless. It’s going to Prince Harry. Who I don’t even think is a prince anymore. See,… pic.twitter.com/eLx3rO2M1h
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 28, 2024
On Monday, ESPN released a statement explaining why they felt it was important to honor Prince Harry despite the backlash.
“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. While we understand not everyone will agree with all honorees selected for any award, The Invictus Games Foundation does incredible work and ESPN believes this is a cause worth celebrating,”