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More than 30,000 people have signed a petition against Prince Harry being awarded an award named in honour of an American war hero.
Sports broadcaster ESPN has announced that the Duke of Sussex will receive the Pat Tillman Award for his work with the Invictus Games.
The ESPY Award is named after former professional football player Pat Tillman, who left his football career to serve in the military after 9/11 and died in Afghanistan.
The petition, launched on June 27, calls on ESPN to “reconsider awarding the Pat Tillman Award to Prince Harry” and has garnered nearly 32,000 signatures.
The petition was created by Patti Mickel, who writes that the award should be representative of Pat Tillman’s values and “should honor someone who, like Tillman, has demonstrated unwavering dedication to his team and his country.”
The Duke of Sussex, 39, was chosen for the award for his efforts to use sport to “change the world and make it more inclusive for marginalised and suffering communities”.
Harry founded the Invictus Games in 2014 to celebrate the sporting achievements of wounded, sick and injured servicemen.
The Change.org petition reads: “Prince Harry, although a former military officer, has been involved in controversies that call into question his suitability to receive an honour of this magnitude.
“He has faced accusations of endangering his squadron by publicly revealing military deaths.
The petition refers to a story in Harry’s book Spare, in which he writes that he used a Typhoon to attack his father’s car during training.
He added: “More recently, his role in the Invictus Games, a platform intended to celebrate the resilience and dedication of veterans, has been criticised for being self-centred.”
Harry recently marked the anniversary of the Invictus Games at several events in the UK, including a thanksgiving service and a mini-tour of Nigeria with his wife Meghan Markle.
Tillman’s mother, Mary, also criticised the decision to give the award to the Duke, saying she believed there were many more deserving recipients to choose from.
She told the Mail on Sunday“I am surprised that they chose such a controversial and divisive individual to receive the award.
“There are recipients who are much more suitable. There are people working in the veteran community who are doing tremendous things to help them.
“These people don’t have the money, the resources, the connections or the privileges that Prince Harry has. I think these kinds of people should be recognized.”
The IndependentA representative for Prince Harry has been contacted for further comment.