ICYMI: The 5 Best Moments From The ESPYs

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

Top athletes gathered together in Los Angeles for the 2016 ESPY Awards to celebrate athletic achievements and performances. The show was hosted by wrestler John Cena and broadcasted live on ABC. In case you missed the ESPYS or want to relive it, here are the five memorable moments of from an inspirational and powerful night:

1. 'Enough is Enough' opening

NBA superstars Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul opened the show to make a passionate call to action in regards to the most recent deaths including Philando Castile, Alton Sterling, and the Dallas police officers. "We asked to start the show tonight this way, the four of us talking to our fellow athletes with the country watching because we cannot ignore the current state of America," Anthony said.

2. Craig Sager received the Jimmy V Perseverance Award

Vice President Joe Biden presented the award to Turner Sports reporter Craig Sager after a video narrative and tribute. Sager has continued to work as he faces a recurrence of leukemia at the age of 64. "To everybody out there, we are making progress - incredible progress," Sager said. “… We are going to find a cure for cancer. But we need your help.”

3. Inspiring speech by Eric Berry

NFL Chiefs safety Eric Berry won the ESPY for Best Comeback Player for his return from battling Hodgkin's lymphoma. 'Honor your legacy, baby.' And you can push through it,”he said.

4. Mother of gun violence victim speaks

Zevion Dobson, the Tennessee all-star high school football player who was shot and killed in December while protecting his friends, received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award. Zenobia Dobson, his mother, accepted on his behalf and addressed the growing gun violence epidemic in her emotional acceptance acceptance speech saying, “We as a country need to take a stand to consider the effects of gun violence on families throughout America.”

5. Hilarious Peyton Manning spoof

Peyton Manning was mocked in a funny skit during the awards show. The recently retired football player made a commercial where people in his life read letters he wrote to them throughout the years and the ESPYs parodied it with famous athletes reading his fake trash-talking letters including Derek Jeter and brother Eli Manning. “'Dearest Eli. I have now won as many Super Bowls as you have, just FYI, '”Eli reads from one of Peyton's letters.