One way we know my next guest is incredible
is that 50 different people have written to me about him.
Here is one of the letters that I received.
Dear Ellen, Emeka Nnaka is one of the most amazing people
I know.
At 21 years old, he suffered an injury playing football
and was paralyzed from the neck down.
Despite his obstacles, he faced I've never
seen him without a huge smile.
He's dedicated his life to helping others
and has become a beacon of light for everyone in the community.
We call him our Tulsa Treasure.
Ellen, Emeka truly embodies everything
you believe in-- giving, kindness, and selflessness.
If you ever got the opportunity to meet him,
I know you would love him.
So Emeka thinks that he is here to film a piece for Ellentube.
He's currently getting a tour of our studio,
but, really, I'm about to surprise him.
So we're going to be quiet until the doors open.
So--
Ah, you're a legend.
[LAUGHING]
So-- yeah, and this is the green screen area too as well.
It's our ping-pong area back there
that we have ping-pong tournaments.
--Obama and Michelle.
And this part right here, this is my favorite part,
because Ellen walks on this very stage
right here before she goes out, and we
have all of our musical guests here,
and it's just so freaking amazing.
[APPLAUSE]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[SINGING] That tonight's gonna be a good night.
That tonight's gonna be a good night.
That tonight's gonna be a good, good night.
I've got a feeling.
Woo-hoo.
All right.
Oh, my god.
Oh, my-- Oh, my--
Oh, my god.
OK.
Oh, my goodness.
Hi, surprise.
Y'all are terrible.
Yeah.
And then your friends just got here.
They didn't know either.
We just surprised them.
They got in the audience.
Hey, everybody.
[CHEERING]
All right.
So a lot of people wrote in.
I just read one of the letters.
A lot of people thought that I should meet you,
so that's why you're here.
So let's talk about the injury.
So you were playing football.
Yes.
And what happened?
So I was playing for a semi-pro team.
We were playing a game in Arkansas.
And I was going down the field and making a play,
and I made a tackle that I've made a hundred times.
And I go down, and all I hear is crack.
I go down, he goes down.
He gets up.
And I'm like, wait a minute.
What's going on?
And my teammates are asking me to get up.
You know, let's go, let's go, let's go.
And I'm like, no, give me a second.
And if any of you have ever hit your elbow,
hit your funny bone, you'll know what
I felt over my entire body.
And said, get up, get up.
And I'm like, I just need a second.
And a second turns into a minute.
And at that moment, I know, like OK, something's not right.
Trainers come out, and I can hear them screaming
back, saying, I think it's C5.
I think it's C6.
I had no idea what that meant.
Make a long story short, everyone gets out there.
And as they're wheeling me to the ambulance, I know--
I've watched sports my entire life.
And so whether you're walking, limping off, carried off,
you do something to let the crowd know
you're going to be OK.
Put a thumbs up, you wave.
And I remember trying to do that to let my fans
know, let the kids know, like, Emeka's going to be all right,
and couldn't do it.
And it was in that moment that I realized that like,
I don't know if everything is going to be OK.
And so they give me to the hospital.
I undergo a nine hour neck surgery.
The next day, spent 10 days in ICU.
Come back to Tulsa, and begin the process of rehabilitation.
Yeah.
So you're an athlete.
You're a football player.
Did you go through depression?
Like, you must have--
what did you feel at first?
Honestly, it wasn't until, you know,
after three months of being in therapy, Dr. [INAUDIBLE] says,
hey, we've done everything we can do for you.
And you are released to go back to your life.
And it's like, wait, what life?
You know, this is not the life that I've lived for 21 years.
And so, it was in that moment that I was
like, what do I do from here?
Like, I'm asking myself all these questions.
Who am I?
Where do I go from here?
Will I ever make a difference?
Will I ever have a life?
Will I ever have a wife?
And that was the hardest part, was just
going from athlete to person with a disability,
and not knowing how to navigate.
Yeah.
And what turned around for you?
Honestly, I spent a lot of time thinking about me.
Like, you know, what am I going to do?
And I got an opportunity.
I started volunteering at a local youth
group and a local shelter.
And it was working with kids that really, honestly, turned
everything around.
It took the attention off of me, and I put it on other people.
And it was working with them that gave me purpose again.
Like, here in my world, I thought
that I had lost all purpose.
What is my life all about?
And working with these kids really showed me
what life really is about.
It's not about me.
It's about we.
And so, pouring into them.
[APPLAUSE]
All right.
Yup.
So, all you people who wrote in, you're right.
I love him.
We are back with the amazing Emeka,
and that's your name now, Amazing Emeka.
Amazing Emeka, you always have a smile on your face.
You have such a great disposition.
And life has really not been fair to you recently.
I mean, it's like, there's been some bad, bad luck.
Explain what's happened in the last few months.
So at the end of August, the van that I
have that I use to drive to help me finish school,
helps me get to work, volunteering in the community,
I hit a curb, and I wrecked it.
Just from hitting a curb?
Yeah.
It was not a big accident?
It was not a big accident, I thought, at all.
And two weeks after that, my dad,
who is my primary caregiver, who is
the reason I am who I am-- he gives me the flexibility
to be who I am-- he falls and breaks his ankle
and has to have multiple surgeries,
and is out of the game.
And he's in the wheelchair now.
And then, two weeks after that, my apartment
catches on fire, and--
And you're just laughing about that.
Yeah.
Get a call, the apartment's on fire.
And, you know, the whole complex goes up, and we lose it all.
Yep.
So you're OK.
Everybody's OK, but you lost your van that was getting you
around, your dad who helps you can't help you,
and you lost your apartment.
Yes.
All right.
Well, that doesn't seem fair at all.
So you help the community, and you do so much
to give to others.
My friends at Cheerios want to encourage
1 million acts of good, and we want
to celebrate all the good that you're doing by giving you
a check for $100,000.
[CHEERING]
Oh, my god.
Can I get a hug, please?
Yeah, you can get a hug.
Oh, my god.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
All right.
I wanna hear about your acts of good.
So go to my website.
Tell us what you're doing.
We all need to do acts of good right now.
Hi.
I'm Andy.
Ellen asked me to remind you to subscribe to her channel
so you can see more awesome videos,
like videos of me getting scared or saying embarrassing things,
like ball peen hammer, and also some videos of Ellen
and other celebrities, if you're into that sort of thing.
[SHOUTING]
[BLEEP]
God [BLEEP]