ten super bowl championships. >> i want a fact check. >> when i wager a bet next year i'm checking madden. >> i still don't believe it. on our broadcast tonight, triple threat. another record breaking storm sweeping across parts of this country burying cities from o on up through new england. now the danger is flash freezing as temperatures dive and the system behind it. the backlash as chris christie among others wading now into the battle over vaccines amid this growing measles outbreak. fighting for her life. late word tonight about whitney houston's daughter and a sad medical emergency very similar to the way her mother died. and what was he thinking? the largest audience in the history of american television, 114 million viewers, all asking the same question all at the same time. "nightly news" begins now. from nbc news world headquarters in new york, this

is "nbc nightly news" with brian williams. good evening. it brought days of rain to arizona, ending right before the super bowl. it then caught a fast ride across the country, hit the midwest hard before arriving in the already-pummeled sections of the east where tonight the pummeling goes on. more snow in boston and enough to delay the patriots celebration until wednesday after the snowiest seven-day period in that hearty city's history. chicago and detroit fell just show of all-time records, in fact, and travel just took another big hit. these repeat winter storms make it feel a lot like groundhog day, which in fact it is. we begin with all of it tonight. nbc's miguel almaguer starts us off from boston. miguel, good evening. >> reporter: brian, good evening. boston was hit with 14 hours of steady snow today. it's the reason why public schools have been canceled tomorrow and why the patriots parade has been pushed to wednesday. we're on boylston street. this is the parade route. and this is the problem.

snow mounds top six feet in some areas. this entire region is a mess. there were whiteouts and wipeouts. it's getting ugly out here. and as you can see, the snow is still falling. in boston, blinding blizzard-like conditions, another snow emergency. the city hammered with its second major storm in just a week. a new record, three feet of snow in seven days. >> as you can see, a ton of snow here. so hopefully it will get a little let-up soon. >> reporter: now boston is scrambling not just to clear the parade route for the patriots, but to make icy walkways and dangerous roads safe. >> we have an entire city to get up and running. there are people that are at work not worried about whether or not the patriots won the super bowl or not. they're worried about making sure they can get to work. >> reporter: with up to two inches of snow falling an hour, the winds are wicked.

40-mile-an-hour gusts. it's nearly impossible to see. airports across the region are crippled. more than 10,000 flights canceled or delayed. >> supposed to fly out to boston today at 4:30. the flight got canceled so i'm taking the acela up now. >> reporter: along the coast, wind and water battered a frozen-over marshfield hit early last week. >> our little area when it gets snow and we get a bad storm and we get flooding, it's really bad. >> reporter: new york hit hard with powder, sleet and freezing rain. roads at rush hour deadly. two killed on i-95. in rhode island, the capitol is covered. snow plows can't keep up. this storm may nearly be over, but winter isn't. >> yes, a shadow i see. >> reporter: on groundhog's day, punxsutawney phil saw his shadow. legend has it six more weeks of winter. miguel almaguer, nbc news, boston. this is kevin tibbles in

chicago with record breaking heavy weather and headaches. >> i've shoveled about five times. >> reporter: an inch of snow an hour made for a dangerous icy commute. blowing snow in nebraska and indiana blamed for numerous collisions that have killed as many as four people. in chicago, the city's 350 snowplows have been rolling around the clock, dumping 75,000 tons of salt. o'hare international airport more than 1,000 canceled flights today alone. >> i got here and they said i'm not going anywhere else. >> reporter: across the region historic single-day snowfalls on sunday. in chicago 16.2 inches. south bend, 14.7. and detroit 13.7 inches of the white stuff. school closures in many places including the university of michigan. in milwaukee, however, kids trudged to class. while in nearby greenfield firefighters transported a man to the hospital after he

suffered a heart attack while shoveling, then returned to finish his driveway. but leave it to jimmy the groundhog in chilly sun prairie to make his mark. jimmy was so upset with the weather this groundhog day he bit the mayor's ear. and keeping those streets cleared is a big deal here in chicago. back in 1979 they had a blizzard and the mayor was publicly blamed for slow snow removal. he was quickly turfed from office. well, brian, we have a mayoral election in this town just three weeks away. something tells me the streets are going to be cleaned. brian? >> getting tough out there. i hope we don't have to say this. after a heart attack, don't go back to shoveling. kevin tibbles on the shores of lake michigan tonight. miguel almaguer before that in boston. all of this brings us to al roker who is here with us in the studios. what do you got going on? >> i wish i had better news, but i don't, brian.

here goes the snow. it's finally moving out. that's the good news. new england may see another 3 to 6 inches parts of eastern maine may pick up another 9. and to add insult to injury cold air. omaha, ten degrees below average when we get into thursday morning. chicago, minus 1. detroit, single digits at 8. and this moves into friday into the northeast, 6 in new york, 4 in boston, zero in buffalo. here comes a low pressure system riding along the jet stream. it brings snow into chicago, st. louis an icy mix even further south. and then by thursday afternoon it's off the coast and bringing snow. how much? it's still a little too early to tell, but this could be another potential big impact storm, brian. >> exactly what we don't need, exactly where we don't need it again. al roker here with us in the studio. al, thanks. now we turn to this growing concern over measles in this country. new numbers out from the cdc shows the outbreak has grown to 102 cases in 14 states.

and now we're seeing politicians entering the fray possibly at their peril over whether children should receive the measles vaccine that once eradicated the disease. our report on that tonight from nbc's hallie jackson. >> reporter: an overseas trip is making headlines here at home after governor chris christie's controversial comments on whether parents should vaccinate. >> parents need to have some measure of choice in things as well. so that's the battle that the government has to decide. >> reporter: christie's position weighing personal freedom versus public health raised eyebrows considering during the ebola scare he imposed a mandatory quarantine of a healthy nurse to protect the public. the quick backlash prompted christie's office to walk back those remarks and clarify his support for the measles shot, as this public health conversation turns political. >> i've heard of many tragic cases of walking, talking normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines. >> reporter: but the vast majority of doctors say the

shots are safe and so does president obama. >> there's every reason to get vaccinated. there aren't reasons to not. >> reporter: in new york an infected college student may have exposed hundreds of commuters at busy penn station. and in california a santa monica day care says 14 infants under a year old will be quarantined for three weeks because of a potential measles exposure. erin richardson's son is having a different experience at a different day school. you're on day four, how has it been? >> i'm tired of quarantine. >> reporter: her toddler, jaden, has had his first measles shot but since his condition may make him vulnerable to the measles anyway, doctors want him isolated. >> every child that can be vaccinated needs to be vaccinated to protect the kids that can't, such as jaden. >> reporter: most states let parents opt out of vaccinations because of religious beliefs. and 18 because of personal reasons. >> some people because of mistrust of authority, mistrust of the government. some people just don't want to

hear the correct information. they've made up their mind and they're very stubborn about it. >> reporter: it's why doctors are fighting this outbreak on a new front, the court of public opinion, to keep the public healthy. hallie jackson, nbc news, phoenix. the white house is now considering arming ukraine against pro-russian rebels, according to senior defense officials. over the weekend talks over establishing a lasting cease-fire fell apart leading to the eruption of fierce fighting all over again in eastern ukraine. the u.s. has stopped short of providing the ukrainian government with lethal force protection over the past year. now to an nbc news investigation into an aircraft the u.s. navy trusts with the lives of our service members in the course of a vital mission, the detection of underwater mines. it's the mh-53e sea dragon helicopter. and its safety record is alarming. dozens have been killed in these choppers over the years. now in partnership with the virginian pilot newspaper and the berkeley investigative

reporting program, our senior investigative correspondent cynthia mcfadden takes a closer look at why the sea dragons are still in the air. >> reporter: wes van dorn was a devoted family man. he loved his two little boys and he loved serving his country. the 29-year-old lieutenant was a highly regarded naval aviator, pilot of an mh-53e sea dragon, the navy's largest, oldest and most dangerous helicopter. >> i think that it's clear that they're unsafe. >> reporter: his wife, nicole, says her husband complained to both his superiors and to her about the helicopter's safety. in fact, this is a video he shot in 2012 of a sea dragon that crashed in korea. was the navy asking him to do something that they shouldn't have been asking him to do? >> i think so. >> reporter: they knew that these helicopters weren't safe? >> well documented. >> reporter: indeed it is. according to the military's own statistics, the sea dragon is three times more likely to crash

than any other navy aircraft, and an astounding 30 navy men have died in sea dragon accidents. built in the 1980s, they're still in service 15 years after the navy started making plans to replace them. as the helicopters age, maintenance became a big issue, and what he saw frightened van dorn. >> it struck him to the core. >> reporter: he was afraid? >> yes. >> reporter: and for good reason. just over a year ago van dorn's fears became a reality in a training night over the coast of norfolk, virginia. old electrical wires chafed over a worn-out fuel pipe and within seconds -- >> the smoke was filling up the cabin. >> reporter: dylan boone, a young sailor on board, described the explosion. >> 15 seconds, i believe, was by the time the fire erupted to the time we were crashing in the water. i know when i woke up i was about 20, 30 feet under water. >> reporter: would you want to go up in one of these sea dragons again? >> no. >> reporter: are they safe?

>> i really can't answer that. >> reporter: boone and one other man survived. van dorn and two others did not. captain todd flannery was in charge of van dorn's sea dragon squad run. >> it's a joy to fly. >> reporter: he took us inside one of the huge helicopters. were you aware that he was concerned about the safety of the helicopter? >> i was not. >> reporter: because he did complain to his superiors about that he saw maintenance failures and a variety of problems to the aircraft. >> right. it didn't make it up to me. he would have talked to his commanding officer with that. >> reporter: should you have known about his concerns? >> yes, i should have. >> reporter: captain flannery says the navy had worked hard in recent years to improve safety and he believed the remaining sea dragons are safe. >> i'm extremely confident in this aircraft and i would fly in it any time. >> reporter: is there anything that would persuade you this shouldn't still be flying? another crash? i mean, how many crashes do we have to have?

>> we can't have another crash. we just can't. it would be too late to be dissuaded then if we have another crash. >> reporter: five people killed in four crashes. >> yes. >> reporter: in the course of two years. >> yes. >> reporter: those are odds i don't think most of us will want to take. >> they're not good. those numbers are not good at all. >> reporter: in fact, nbc news has talked to three other navy air crewmen, who, in the wake of the van dorn crash, now refuse to fly the sea dragon. >> the only reason i am sitting here is because wes can't be sitting here because he started something that, unfortunately, i need to finish for him. >> reporter: japan has retired their similar helicopter, but to keep a sea dragon flying the u.s. has been negotiating to buy their spare parts. meanwhile, just two weeks ago in another incident a sea dragon was forced to land in kuwait because of electrical sparks inside the helicopter, brian. >> powerful piece of reporting, cynthia mcfadden with us tonight. thank you, cynthia, as always. still ahead tonight, after

the next break, new details in a story that got a lot of attention over the weekend. whitney houston's daughter in a fight for her life now found unresponsive in the bathtub three years since her mother's death. also, the blame game after one of the most dramatic finishes ever. the question everyone is asking, why did they go from beast mode to least mode?

tonight, nearly three years since whitney houston was found

dead in a bathtub in a hotel in beverly hills, her daughter is in grave condition and on a ventilator after being found unresponsive in the bathtub this weekend. we get new details tonight from nbc's gabe gutierrez. >> reporter: she is the only child of the late whitney houston and singer bobby brown. >> 21-year-old female in the bathtub, face down. en route. >> reporter: but saturday morning investigators say bobbi kristina brown was discovered unresponsive facedown in a bathtub in her home near atlanta. a police report released today showed paramedics responded to a drowning. her husband, nick gordon, was performing cpr as first responders arrived. the couple seen here in an interview last year had recently celebrated their first wedding anniversary. >> i know we have a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful future ahead of us. >> reporter: she grew up in the spotlight. >> she grew up under very chaotic circumstances. i mean, both of her parents

struggled with addiction issues. there was drinking, there was drugs. this was the world that she knew. >> this is my wife. >> hi. >> reporter: that turbulent world documented in the reality show "being bobby brown." her parents divorced when she was 14. then, almost exactly three years ago, whitney houston was found dead in a bathtub at a beverly hills hotel. authorities ruled it an accident, listing heart disease and cocaine use as contributing factors. >> now that she is not here, i am my mother. i am my mother. and i am my mother's child. >> reporter: tonight, her cousin tells nbc news the 21-year-old is breathing with the help of a ven later and she's a fighter. >> she's been hit with a couple of bolders in life but she keeps getting up and fighting the good fight. >> reporter: as they ask for privacy and prayers. gabe gutierrez, nbc news, roswell, georgia.

when we come back, the new guidelines out tonight on important aspect of daily life.

they called him johnny football at texas a&m. and it's now a registered trademark, in fact. after a rough rookie season with the cleveland browns heisman trophy winner johnny manziel says he's entering a treatment for rehab. says he's doing it for his family, friends and teammates and asking for privacy until he rejoins the team. national sleep foundation out with new sleep guidelines for all age groups, starting with newborns at 14 to 17 hours a day. good luck here. teenagers should aim for eight to ten, they say. and adults age 26 to 64 should aim for seven to nine, seven to eight for seniors 65 and older. and a well-known american brand in the news. bonne bell is closing down and selling its assets to a california company. the announcement made more than one generation of american women downright wistful today

remembering those lipsmacker flavors like raspberry, candy cane, root beer float and dr pepper. when we come back, what were the seahawks thinking? and other burning questions from the highest rated super bowl of all time.

about last night, we now know the super bowl was the most-watched broadcast of any kind in american tv history period. a record 114.4 million people watched the game and the commercials that get so much attention this time of year. viewer polls seemed to like budweiser's lost puppy ad the most for good reason. but this year a lot of sponsors aimed at dads and went heavy on sentiment if not downright sadness, like the nationwide insurance spot narrated by a little boy from beyond the grave. from katy perry's elaborate halftime show, two themes emerged, the dancing sharks and her flying star, which reminded a lot of people of nbc's "the more you know" public service campaign logo. then there was the game and the ending of the game and the millions who could be heard screaming, what were the seahawks thinking? our report tonight from nbc's ron mott. >> down to half a minute. >> reporter: a mere 36 inches from a probable back-to-back

super bowl crown, the seahawks passed on the run. >> the pass is intercepted at the goal line by malcolm butler! unreal! >> reporter: catching heat instead of the game-winning touchdown. >> i told those guys that was my fault totally. why don't you just run it? that's a real good thought. >> reporter: rebukes were fast and furious. barbs coming not just from the tens of millions of armchair quarterbacks screaming at their tvs, football greats were baffled, too. nfl hall of famer emmitt smith tweeted, that was the worst play call i've seen in the history of football. dwight clarke who owns one of the league's most historic catches, called it the dumbest. >> you've got marshawn lynch in the backfield, borderline unstoppable in this part of the field. i can't believe the call. >> reporter: the play was all the more stunning because of what happened just moments before. >> look at that. does a juggling act. >> reporter: a circus catch to put seattle in striking

distance, 1:06 to go, down 28-24. >> unbelievable! >> reporter: patriots quarterback tom brady looked on with worry. marshawn lynch, the beast as he's known, rumbles to the 1 on first down. clock ticking the coach orders the throw, hoping to come back to lynch. and that's when malcolm butler, a 24-year-old rookie stepped forward out of obscurity and laid waste to the tragedy. disbelief. >> it happened so quick. obviously as emotional as you can be at that point. >> reporter: tom brady came into the game with a cloud over his head and questions about whether he is a cheater. he leaves as one of just three quarterbacks in nfl history to win four super bowl championships. the nfl's season of trouble sidelined by a breathtaking finish, sure to keep fans buzzing until the next kickoff. ron mott, nbc news, glendale, arizona. >> it was an unbelievable football game. that's our broadcast for this monday night. as we begin a new week, thank you for being with us.

i'm brian williams. we of course hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening. good night. right now at 6:00 too busy planning and taking notes to watch the super bowl. tonight what they learned in arizona that's being used in santa clara. good evening and thanks for being with us. >> even before super bowl xlix's dramatic ending, planning for super bowl l here in the bay area was well under way. for santa clara, the city hosting the next super bowl one of the lessons learned in arizona is that it's never too soon to start the game plan. the local contingent is headed back to the bay letter. robert handa reached them in

arizona today to talk about the lessons learned. he joins from us levi's stadium with what they now know. >> reporter: it's been quite a learning curve for santa clara. first becoming the home for an nfl stadium. now getting ready to host the super bowl. and that local contingent you were talking about including the police chief got game experience in arizona. >> play clock is 5. pass intercepted at the goal line! >> reporter: the ending of the arizona super bowl is just the start for those reversed with next year's event. for santa clara officials, who were in glendale scouting for information, the trip drove home the point that real working relationships between federal, state, and local agencies as well as with the nfl, is crucial. >> you have to really see it for yourself to see the dynamics and the situation that takes place. one agency cannot do it all themselves. >> reporter: they say the trip reminded them for