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NFL player escorts teen to senior prom

Posted at 8:00 AM, May 14, 2012
and last updated 2012-05-14 08:00:42-04

INDEPENDENCE, Ohio (WJW) – Independence High School Senior Joyce Grendel, 18, is putting on the last-minute touches before her prom date arrives.

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She’s extra nervous because she asked him out.

“Yeah, yeah … I didn’t think that I had a chance,” she said.

Did we mention she asked out Browns cornerback Joe Haden, via Twitter?

“It just said, ‘Hey Joe, would you consider going to my senior prom with me because my date backed out and didn’t go,’ ” Joyce said.

Within a few hours, he replied and said, “yes.”

Friday afternoon, Joyce, wearing a flowing purple dress, nervously waited with about a dozen friends, and family for Hayden to arrive at her Independence home.

Forget the limo, Haden pulled up in his white Lamborghini.

“Oh my God, oh my God. Mom, I’m scared,” Joyce said as Haden, wearing a grey suit,  stepped out of the car and walked over to greet her.

The couple posed for photos, did the corsage, both with nervous smiles.

“I am nervous, too. We were taking pictures with me and her family. I feel this is very legit, like I was getting ready, ‘Does this look cool?’ when I’m getting ready. I feel like I’m very legit. This is my prom, too,” Haden said.

Haden, 23, never got to attend his senior prom because he graduated early.

And in reality, this isn’t the first time he’s met Joyce and her friend Lacey, who accompanied them to the prom with her date.

“I knew her because she tweets me a lot, and she’s been a really good Haden Nation supporter. All my autographs, all my signings, she always shows up, and Lacey,” Haden said.

As for dad, this is one date he approves of.

“We met him last year. As a matter of fact, the kids went bowling with him downtown. You couldn’t find a nicer guy. I talked to him a little bit there. He’s not different than any of us; he’s just a quality guy,” Dave Grendel said.

The happy couple then got into Haden’s Lamborghini and drove to the World on the River in the Flats for their senior prom.