Mother of Pat Tillman has criticised the decision to give Prince Harry the memorial award at ESPY

[PrincessMee]

Mary Tillman says " There are recipients far more fitting. He publicly disrespected his family , ran away from service to his country. He is unworthy of this award"

She feels there are recipients far more fitting.

I think she speaks for many.

In other words, he's blaming the West Coast equivalent of the " men in grey suits". 😂

Is Harry actually ‘stunned’ and ‘blaming’, or it is just more tabloid rubbish?

It’s a good question. He may be aware of the criticism and remain unfazed. He could be completely unaware. Or he may not believe it.

Maybe he will give another interview one day and explain what was going through his head during these years.

harry in the Netflix and spare really couldn’t handle negatives, which is strange as he doesn’t mind sharing negative stories about others. How could you not be hurt, he’s about to collect an award that the mother doesn’t think he deserves. The press are probably doing an educated guess. Theres nothing he can do now except a speech of damage limitations and hopes of getting an audience who support him, which I think he will have. You don’t pay tens of thousands to hire PR and not get pissed off when something that should be great PR is turned into a bashing. I could imagine the worst for Harry is it is probably made up crap but also feeling paranoia that someone close is leaking.

Various news media in all three countries UK, Australia and US, have written articles about the award with links to the petition.

Links to the petition are all over different social media. God only knows how many people the petition is reaching, yet only around 70,000 people have signed it so far.

This feels like a very small number to me, given how unpopular we are told Harry has become and how many people could have easily signed the petition if they wanted to.

Just a thought.

This is a link to an Arizona newspaper article on Harry getting the award, it gives a bit more about the kind of person Pat Tillman was, makes it even harder to believe Harry has been given an award in this guys name.

"Tillman’s story is the stuff of legend not because of how he died but because of how he lived.

This is a guy who was 5-foot-11 and had no business thinking he could play football at a major college. But his senior year at Arizona State University, he was Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year.

This is a guy who certainly had no business thinking he could play in the NFL. But his 224 tackles in 2000 set an Arizona Cardinals franchise record.

Then came that astounding day in 2001 when he turned down a $9 million offer to go to the St. Louis Rams, a team that had won one Super Bowl and had a chance to be champions again. Instead, he took less than half that to stay with the 3-13 Cardinals.

“I try not to make decisions based on money,” he said at the time. “One simple reason is they (the Rams) are already good and we’re crap. I’d like to be a part of building something. I felt loyalty to the coaches. I’ve come a long way, and it’s been because of them.”

That was in April 2001.

Five months later, America changed, and everyone knows the story. How Tillman walked away from a $3.6 million contract and from celebrity, how he traded training camp for boot camp. How he shunned not only the easy road but took the toughest, becoming one of America’s elite, a United States Army Ranger.

There were no news conferences, no Oprah interviews. Instead, he went quietly and served silently."

eu.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/laurieroberts/2024/07/03/prince-harry-decline-espn-pat-tillman-award/74292011007/

That's really humbling.

This appears to be the essence of who Pat Tillman was, Harry should step away from the award now, as hard as it would be for his ego to do so.

“I try not to make decisions based on money,” he said at the time. “One simple reason is they (the Rams) are already good and we’re crap. I’d like to be a part of building something. I felt loyalty to the coaches. I’ve come a long way, and it’s been because of them.”

I am sure they have some of the best speechwriters and reputation coach's working feverishly on Harry's acceptance speech at the moment, but I think it will be impossible for him to appear genuine or respectful as the disparity between Harry and Pat Tillman is just too much to dismiss or overcome.

I've seen posts with screenshots of the petition with the numbers going down .

Harry has no right to pick up this award. Why he hasn’t declined it is beyond me.
I am gobsmacked that he’s still going ahead with it.

Yes.

Plus he feels he deserves it because his mum died when he was 12

I’ve seen photos of an alien the US government found in the desert. The petition is still online, you can see the real thing. It’s over 70K signatures. I’m fine with him getting this award because I think Invictus is a a positive thing. I don’t even care if he gets the most Harry-est Harry award or whatever. But don’t gaslight.

I’m fine with him getting this award because I think Invictus is a a positive thing

So do I, but I really think The Harry and Meghan Circus is starting to overshadow the work that Invictus is doing, and not in a good way. I think him getting this award may actually encourage more to think negatively about Invictus. ESPN on the other hand must be thrilled by all the coverage and they really don’t care that the point of the award and the positive work of Invictus are being completely swamped

If I were Harry I’d say that I would accept the award in the name of Invictus, rather than as a personal award for him. And I’d leave Meghan at home.

You should be in charge of their PR.

I've seen rumors that the SS have signed the petition and then made pro-Harry comments. Don't know if true. If so, maybe they were removed.

However, people can just email ESPY and the Tillman Foundation directly. They don't need to sign a petition.

I’m fine with him getting this award because I think Invictus is a a positive thing.

I think it'd be a whole lot finer if the grunts who have grunted on hour a week Harold's behalf got their day in the sun.

Even better if we finally got a fully transparent breakdown of the Henrys's claimed sundries on IG's tab.

All such easy PR but ofc none of it's going to happen.

I think it would have been much better, if they wanted to honour Invictus, if they had just given the award to Invictus (possibly jointly with the Warrior Games)

Harry would still have had his moment in the spotlight - but could have used it to showcase the veterans. And wouldn't have looked like a pot-hunter

I reckon Harry's `PR team and speech writers will be working round the clock at the moment.

I am not sure him accepting on behalf of Invictus will quite cut it . But I do like your phrase "pot hunter" @WinnieTheW0rm

I do think he should have realised the spirit of the award and asked for someone else to receive it but he and M increasing seem to be in search of awards / red carpets etc. In my opinion only ( and other opinions are available ) they are starting to look a little grabby and foolish - but one opinion.

Does he not even write his own speeches? So really he’s just a walking ventriloquists dummy.

I'd dread to think what his speeches would sound like if he wrote his own.
They just be a list of how awful his life has been 🥱

Prince Harry 26 June 2024

“This one is for our entire service community,” Harry said of receiving the ESPYS award, according to ABC News.

So I’m fairly confident Harry intends to make this award more than about himself, as he already has done 2 weeks ago. back when the award was announced.

I still think famous people getting awards is wrong. Our priorities are fucked. We should be recognising ‘unsung heroes’ but very few people pay attention when someone unknown gets an award. This award to Harry raises the profile of Invictus further, and of course ESPN itself (which is always the way).

(I’ve copied and pasted the quote from a The Hill article but the ABC is the link that shows up. Not sure what I’ve done).

He has issued a PR piece today bigging up the Invictus Team UK squad. So he's using Invictus as a shield from all the negative publicity.

The quote above was from 26 June (before the controversy) so Harry very possibly intended to include invictus from the get go.

At any rate, this latest controversy will soon be behind them (us) and they (we) will move on. Very likely to Meghan’s Netflix show. And probably we’ll see ARO actually selling stuff. I would think both will happen together. We’ll see.

According to charitiesforvets.org The Pat Tillman Foundation is not a charity they recommend.