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.

People also directly emailed ESPN and the Tillman Foundation. An intelligent direct email makes more of an impact than signing a petition.

This just showed up on the NY Post. Interesting technical difficulties:

nypost.com/2024/07/12/sports/the-espys-had-a-very-weird-ending-involving-prince-harry-tribute/

Seriously? I don’t think that is right. It shows you tweets in your feed based on your interests but the comments under the tweets you choose to read? No, don’t think those are filtered or sorted except by time.

Its was a thing with some of the punk movement back in the late 70s - Sid Vicious and Siouxie Sue misguidely wore swastikas as a sign of rebellion and a desire to shock. Thankfully society has moved on from where that is any way acceptable.

Blimey, I've seen some desperate attempts to justify Harry's poor behaviour in my time, but this is a classic 🤦‍♀️

Harry did not wear a swastika as a sign of rebellion and a desire to shock because he was in a punk band in the late 70s. He dressed up as a Nazi to go to a posh party in 2005 because he either couldn't understand or didn't care that it's offensive. So racist/idiot/both - take your pick.

I was trying to find some kind of meaningful analogy for all this, and remembered that at the 2014 BBC Sports Personality of the Year award, the Invictus Athletes were collectively awarded the Helen Rollason award for outstanding achievement in the face of adversity.

So, really, what happened at the ESPY’s is like the 2014 Helen Rollason award being made to Prince Harry personally instead of to the athletes, and him turning up with a large entourage to walk on stage, accept the award, make a speech, and then
promptly leave the event - not even hanging around to celebrate the other award winners.

i can’t imagine how badly that would have gone down if he’d done that.

(and just to note - in 2014 Prince Harry did attend the Sports Personality of the Year awards - so he could present the Helen Rollason award to the captain of the UK team on behalf of all the athletes. The contrast between them and now is quite marked).

I think that's a good analogy, @Serenster . Some people are defending the award to Invictus - that's not the point. The point is Harry being nominated for a significant personal achievement, and accepting it, which is what is in dispute.

Harry actually seeemd to have a bit of humility in those days. A sense of humour, a feeling of being a little bit like a normal guy. That’s all gone. Now he’s a wannabe celebrity, full of his own self importance.

Great example @Serenster

I'm actually appalled that he and Meghan left early and didn't remain for the full ceremony. In fact I didn't quite believe it until I saw the video posted above.

Could you make it any more abundantly obvious that you're only there for yourself and have zero interest in honouring or paying tribute to anybody else?

Yes it’s beyond rude.

Incredibly rude and disrespectful to the other award winners. They didn't even leave discreetly but walked along the from stopping to hug and kiss Serena's husband and daughter. They've done themselves no favours at all.

I just can’t believe they don’t care about the optics. It’s just awful.

... walking out with their entourage 🙄

Just waiting for someone to come along and claim they had to get home for the children …..

The daughter looked like she wanted none of it. Defensive body language. I love that Venus stayed resolutely seated and unimpressed.

Meghan with Serena child was not nice to watch, the hand on the shoulder to gently nudge her out of the way to go in for the hug with her dad. All this done with Jill Smoller in the background, who must have been thinking why the early exit could not have been planned. I don’t think Harry is coping well at the moment

She just so blatantly out for herself it’s quite sickening .

Harry just repeats the stuff about his mother endlessly like a mantra. He looks like he’s being operated from a remote control.

And we know who is holding it ...

Yes we do.

Them leaving was just so messy and unorganised, Meghan puts her hand on Harry's back (as usual) and gestures him to move forward while he's shaking hands but he doesn't see it and carries on.

The following recipient was a very interesting speaker too. Dawn Staley is a coach in women's basketball and talked about equality in sport and the current lack of it. You would have thought Meghan would have been particularly interested in that!

And so obvious ! It was clear to all it was a grab and run. Why on earth would their PR think this was in any way acceptable ? Everyone could see! The cameras caught it. They walked out on a show their friend was hosting ! How dismissive to all the other participants and the hosts. Well the hosts got their pound of flesh and I hope they realise how ugly this all looks.

She really was all over him the whole evening. The only thing she didn't do was stick her hand up his arse to work his mouth.

😂😂

Just looking at this now and blimey their behaviour is disrespectful.

Basically they paid their money, got their award and got out. They are at an awards evening not ordering up a burger from an ‘In-n-Out’ drive thru’. The optics are bad.

They really are completely up their own behinds. I expect a lot of people were giving it this⬆️