Since 1993, the ESPY Awards (Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Awards) have recognized outstanding athletic achievements and other sports-related accomplishments. One of the most meaningful honors of the evening is the Pat Tillman Award for Service. While it is normally given to largely unknown individuals, this year the honoree was not an anonymous hero but none other than Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, who accepted the significant award with wife Meagan Markle smiling on.
The ceremony, hosted by Markle’s good friend Serena Williams, was held in Los Angeles earlier this week and acknowledged athletes across sports, including Simone Biles (Best Comeback Athlete), Patrick Mahomes (Best NFL Player and Best Athlete), and Brenna Huckaby (Best Athlete with a Disability) among many others.
The Pat Tillman Award is a special honor given in memory of the former Arizona Cardinals player who gave up a lucrative NFL contract to enlist in the military as a U.S. Army Ranger after 9/11. He was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan in 2004.
Last year, the award was given to the Buffalo Bills training team, who saved Damar Hamlin after the player suffered cardiac arrest during a game. Harry’s receiving the award was met with some criticism, including from Pat Tillman’s mother, Mary Tillman, who told The Daily Mail she was “shocked” by the choice, and felt that less privileged and lesser known individuals were more deserving of acknowledgement.
In his speech, Harry thanked the Tillman family, including Pat’s widow, Marie, who heads the Pat Tillman Foundation, and Mary herself. “Her advocacy for Pat’s legacy is deeply personal, and one that I respect. The bond between a mother and son is eternal and transcends even the greatest losses,” he said.
He also made it clear that he didn’t see the award as one exclusively for him, but as “a voice on behalf of the Invictus Games Foundation, and the thousands of veterans and service personnel from over 20 nations who have made the Invictus Games a reality.
“This award belongs to them, not to me,” he said.
The games are an international multi-sport event for wounded, injured and sick service members, both serving and veterans, which Harry founded in 2014. Harry is himself a veteran, who served two tours in Afghanistan from 2007 to 2008 and again from 2012 to 2013. Harry has credited his military service with giving him a sense of purpose and clarity, and has been involved in causes that benefit soldiers and veterans ever since.
He concluded his speech by harkening to a military expression that dates back to Roman times.
“I’ll spare you ... a Latin lesson,” he joked, “but the phrase translates roughly to ‘leave no one behind.’ And [these words] hold particular significance for the U.S. Army’s Rangers; I have no doubt Pat Tillman and his comrades lived by those words. So it is fitting that I end with them, and make a promise on behalf of all of us at the Invictus Games Foundation, no matter the road ahead, we are here for you, we will leave no one behind.”
The next Invictus Games will be held in February 2025.
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