Last week, ESPN announced that Prince Harry will receive the Pat Tillman Award for Service, specifically because he’s a combat veteran who founded the Invictus Games. The “backlash” to Harry receiving the award has a throughline: the biggest critics are taking pains to avoid mentioning Harry’s military service and the Invictus Games. Pat Tillman’s mother Mary Tillman gave exclusive comments to the Mail on Sunday, saying that she was “surprised” that someone so “controversial and divisive” would receive the award and that the award should go to unsung heroes. Like Marcus Rashford, a famous British footballer who received the award in 2021, I guess. I knew the British media’s outrage would be loud, but even I wasn’t expecting the turn it’s taken over the past week, with people outright lying about Harry’s service and ignoring Invictus. Currently, the anti-Sussex people are arguing that Harry should “turn down” the award, for reasons.

What’s also been curious about all of this is that there’s been some interesting pushback on the critics and the lunatics. TMZ ran a story yesterday about previous Pat Tillman Award recipients backing Harry. One of the recipients is Jake Wood, a former college football player and US Marine who served in Afghanistan. Wood received the Pat Tillman Award in 2018. He appeared on TMZ Live yesterday and defended Harry receiving the award:

I’m really glad that veterans like Jake Wood are coming out to simply tell the truth, because it’s gotten really f–king wacky to try to sift through the lies and the performative outrage. All of the critics’ arguments fall apart upon closer examination. ESPN is standing by their decision, as is the Pat Tillman Foundation. There’s going to be national, if not international, coverage of the ESPYs giving a platform to Harry and the Invictus Games.

From Jake’s IG Stories:

Photos courtesy of Jake Wood’s IG, Cover Images, screencap from TMZ.