- When our next guest found out that her friend
with high-functioning autism didn't have a date to prom,
she enlisted the help of his favorite NFL football team.
Take a look.
- And now for a special message for Michael Pagano.
- Mike Pagano, I knew you'd say yes if I asked you to prom,
but I thought I'd just ask.
- Mike, Saalim Hakim from New York Jets.
Will you go to prom with Sarah?
- Well, I had to stop and ask you a quick question.
Will you go to prom with Sarah?
- Hey, Mike, this is Chris Owusu from the New York Jets,
and I have one question for you.
Will you go to prom with Sarah?
Say yes.
- Hey, what's going on, Michael?
This is Antonio Cromartie with the New York Jets.
I have a quick question for you.
Will you go to the prom with Sarah?
- So, Mike, what do you say? You want to go to prom with me?
I think you should say yes.
[cheering]
- From Levittown, New York,
please welcome Sarah and her prom date, Mike.
- Hi. - How you doing?
- A lot better now.
- Little did you know that your prom date
turns into being on television.
- Yeah. - Pretty cool, right?
Okay, so you've known each other for a long time.
- Yeah. - And Mike asked you to prom,
and?
- Yeah. Um, he actually came up to me
at a party with, like, the whole grade
and he looked so nervous, and he said to me,
he's, like, "Sarah, will you go to prom with me?"
And I was just, like, "Mike, I'm so sorry.
I have to say no 'cause I already have a prom date."
And, oh, I just felt so bad.
- Oh, no. - Yeah.
- So you asked her and she said no.
How did that--why did you ask her in the first place?
- She's one of the nicest people I've ever met.
- That's a good reason.
So you ask her,
then she has plans already.
And then you changed your plans.
What made you change your plans?
- Yeah, I was going with my friend, Steven, originally.
He actually asked me, like, a "prom promise"
freshman year, we made plans to go.
And he texted me this year reminding me, saying,
"Hey, Sarah, are we still going to prom together?"
And I was, like, "Yeah."
It wasn't the sweetest thing, and I kept
going back and thinking, "Oh."
He had so much, like, guts to come up to me and ask me.
And it was so sweet, and I just--
I had to do something nice for him.
- Right. - He's so special.
- But in the meantime, you asked other people
because you wanted to go to prom,
and what happened then?
- They turned me down. - Oh, no.
- Every one of them? - Yep.
- Well, some of them had plans. - The last two people
actually turned him down because I made them.
- They were behind it. - Oh, good. Good.
So how were you able to make this video?
- I was actually just really bored sitting home one night,
and, um, everybody knows that Mike loves the Jets.
He always wears Jet jerseys and Instagram, Twitter,
Jets tweets, and Jets posts.
And, um, I was just planning on holding up a banner
that said prom, and I just--
I commented on Saalim Hakim's photo
not expecting him to answer or even see it.
And within five minutes, he answered saying,
"What can I do to help?" And I was just freaking out.
I, like--my parents were sleeping.
I ran in the room, and I was just, like,
"Fa--he answered," like, "Oh, my God."
So then I just--I figured if one player can answer,
I reached out to the rest of them,
- and I ended up getting nine. - Wow.
And you've been a Jets fan for a long time.
- Mm-hmm. - Since you were, like,
- a little kid. - Yeah.
- I think there's a picture of you with, uh...look.
- Adorable. - Yeah.
- Adorable.
You've been a fan a long time.
So when she played it during the school announcement,
what were you thinking?
- So what happened was she took my bag,
threw it on the ground.
I gave her this look like, "What's going on?
What are you doing in my class?"
And then she gave me this-- kind of this attitude look.
Like, "What?"
And I was pretty-- pretty surprised.
- Yeah, I'd say so.
Pretty cool. And so what made you
want to do this for Mike? You said he's the sweetest guy.
- He is the sweetest guy I've ever met,
And he's actually an inspiration to anybody who knows him.
Even though Mike has high-functioning autism,
he does not let that bring him down at all.
He is--he loves himself. He's not mad at the world.
And, oh, God, everyone loves him,
and he loves himself, and it's just--he's such a good kid.
He deserves for something special to be done for him.
- Well, we could use more of that in the world.
People who love themselves and are not mad.
That's so--good for you for being that way
and that's--that's the way we should all live.
You're both amazing and, uh, we're going to take a break,
and when we come back, I have maybe something for you.
I'm not sure. I don't know.
How did you feel about Sarah doing this for you, Mike?
- It's pretty special. I would never think someone
would do this for me, at all.
- Really, really. I mean, you--
that's very sweet of you that you had plans,
and changed them for this.
So you're going to go to prom.
- When is prom? - June 12.
- June 12. Okay, you love the Jets,
so we got you something special
because you want to go to prom in something special, right?
So we have some special prom gear.
Prom queen, prom king, and...
- Thank you. - You're welcome.
Yeah. There you go. That's right.
[cheers and applause]
Let me know if you get to wear it to prom.
- Oh, my God.
- God, you look so natural.
All right, so let's take a look
at something else that happened.
Hey, Sarah and Mike, this is Todd Bowles,
head coach of the New York Jets.
Standing here with me today, we have...
- Chris Owusu. - Dexter McDougle.
- Saalim Hakim. - Damon "Snacks" Harrison.
- Geno Smith. - Leger Douzable.
- Shaq Evans. - T.J. Barnes.
We're here to tell you that we love your story.
We hope you guys have a great time at the prom.
By the way, we have four pre-game passes for you
to one game this year.
I want to give a shout-out to Ellen
for helping us do this story.
(all) Go Jets!
- Hey, Mike, glad you said yes.
[cheers and applause]
- Oh, my God.
- All right. And how sweet--
wasn't that sweet of them to take time to do that?
Thank y'all guys. And they sent this also.
They sent a little swag over for you to have,
so you have all kinds of...
- They signed a helmet. - Oh, my goodness.
- I know. Very cool.
- They signed that. - It's bedazzled.
- I know.