He just wasn't a hero and wanted to be one. Just the embarrassment ought to be enough. He's going to be really embarrassed.

There must be no more sticking heads in the sand. No more embarrassment and no more hiding behind a veil of apathy,

What is embarrassment? In general, embarrassment is an emotional response to an innocent mistake. The major reason that some of us are embarrassment-prone is that we’ve been conditioned to set unrealistically high expectations for ourselves and to judge ourselves negatively when we can’t possibly meet those standards. A second reason that makes us susceptible to embarrassment is that we’ve been taught to take our cue in evaluating ourselves from what we assume (often erroneously) to be others’ opinions of us.

I couldn’t believe I just blurted all that out. I let my head fall forward until I could bury my overheated face in his shoulder.
“This is mortifying.”
His shoulders shook beneath my hands, and when he spoke, the laughter tinged his voice.
“Babe, look at me.”
“No.” I wiggled deeper into his arms. “I’m staying here until I die. And if I keep spilling my guts to you, that should happen in about two point two seconds when I drop dead of embarrassment.

I was doing what I have done for most of my life, which is to cover for the mistakes of others when they don't know they have embarrassed themselves.

Embarrassment is a villain to be crushed.