Prince Harry just popped up in a pretty unexpected place. The Duke of Sussex was at the NFL Honors gala in Las Vegas on Thursday, just hours after touching down in the U.S. following his flying visit to the U.K. to see King Charles.
There, Harry presented the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year award to Cameron "Cam" Heyward of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
"What you guys do on and off the field is truly remarkable. You're role models for millions in the way you carry yourselves and the way you give back," the duke told the audience before presenting the award.
"This final award, the highest honor, is all about serving your community, and there's one special man we'd like to pay tribute to now. A player who goes above and beyond and whose extraordinary commitment to helping others is a reflection of his own story."
As Heyward took to the stage, his immediate reaction was to freak out about who was presenting him with the award.
"Oh, man. Man! Prince freakin' Harry! Man, I'm in shock! That's Prince Harry!" he said, making the audience giggle.
Taking a more serious tone, he said, "First of all, I wanna say thank you to God. I wouldn't be here today... Ever since I've been a Pittsburgh Steeler, I've always thought God and my dad [the late NFL player Craig Heyward] had a plan for me—and I'm living it right now. I wanna say thank you to the Pittsburgh Steelers for giving me this opportunity."
He went on to thank his coach, Mike Tomlin, his teammates, the Steelers organization, his community, but most of all his family—at which point he got choked up from gratitude.
As well as playing as a defensive lineman for the Steelers, Heyward also heads up the Cameron Heyward Foundation, which works to fight childhood hunger and cancer, to promote childhood literacy, and to support students and teachers. This amazing work is a major part of why he was given the award on Thursday—and ties in with some of the charity work Harry does with the Archewell Foundation.
.@CamHeyward reflects on being named the 2023 Walter Payton Man of the Year 🖤💛📺: #NFLHonors on CBS/NFLN pic.twitter.com/HFftSNuZzDFebruary 9, 2024
Harry's surprise appearance at the NFL event came after he returned to the U.S. from a one-night stay in the U.K., where he met with his father, who sadly revealed his cancer diagnosis to the public earlier this week.
