of this situation until monday morning. i had no knowledge of the various steps involved in the game balls and the process. in my entire coaching career, i have never talked to any player staff member about football air pressure. that is not a subject that i have ever brought up. i have in explanation for what happened. >> here's what we're all asking ourselves this afternoon. did the patriots cheat? according to our cycle poll on msnbc.com that has more than 3,000 votes so far, most of you say the team knew exactly what was going on. for more let's turn to nbc's peter alexander, who's in the middle of the action in foxboro. peter, what we do know is that brady moved this presser up a full day. what are folks around there including the players making of that? >> it's a good question. we should let you know we just

found out within the last matter of moments that this news conference is now more likely to happen at 4:30 than 3:45. we of course will be watching. when we're done talking to you, we're going to walk inside to gillette stadium where they already only have a standing room only crowd. brady was supposed to speak tomorrow, chose to speak today. their hope is they can put this thing to rest. we had a chance to speak to several people who have opinions of this who played within the league including a long-time nfl player i spoke to just moments ago. i'll grab a football quickly. he tells me that in his years playing in the league, that he can't name a single quarterback who didn't in one form or another try to doctor the ball telling me that players would often -- their equipment managers would sometimes use strong horse hair type brushes or sand paper to make these balls a little easier to grip. we spoke to joe theisman the hall of fame quarterback. he picked up a ball that was

legal and ball that was two pounds per square inch below the limit. he said absent pushing the seams and made it a little easier to grip he said it was a negligible difference. what i anticipate we'll hear from tom brady today, a guy who's won three super bowls, two league mvps, is an acknowledgment that, hey, i'm the quarterback, i should have known better i like the pressure to be low on these footballs, but this was not a deliberate act to break rules. >> peter, great stuff. thank you as always. this is a big story. we have a big story coverage for the entire show. cycle alum and pats afishcionado steve carrkornacki is here with us. in the hot seat tom brady, arguably the biggest name in football. about to hear from him at 4:30 now. what do you expect him to say? >> there's a lot of suspense here in part because of the way belichick handled the press conference earlier. oh did belichick throw brady under the bus? these guys coordinated this. the patriots organization

certainly coordinated this ahead of time. the belichick thing was important because you have the whole history there, the spygate thing seven or eight years ago. for belichick to establish, hey, i had no idea that's certainly what he's saying. i believe him. we can get into that later. >> if it does come back to him, he could be banned from the nfl. >> it could be serious. i think what brady would say, i bet you he will say, look did i give them a specific air pressure wanted? no. did i tell them i like it with a little less air? yes. we know other quarterbacks do this. aaron rodgers, quarterback of the green bay packers, he said this publicly. he likes balls that have a lot air. he says we bring them in if the refs take the air out, we're disappointed. >> look, it's important to have you here as a patriots apoll gist. we want to hear more from you on this. we also want bring in cha leaseman za young and mark

malusa from sny radio. you look at that categorical denial in the press conference today, not just, hey, we don't do anything wrong here but i never discuss air pressure in footballs at all. >> yeah and that is something that we're a little surprised to hear from bill belichick, to have him say that -- and actually just be up front about it. that's not really his style. he was up front. he said that's not his domain. he's worried about getting his players ready for game on game day, and then, you know, kind of just pass the buck to tom brady, as we've discussed. certainly interesting. it will be very interesting to hear what tom brady says in an hour and a half or so. >> mark as steve mentioned the spygate scandal from 2007 when the patriots videotaped the defensive coaches of the jets videotaped their signals, so i was wondering as i was watching belichick this morning, how much

credibility did he have before the reporters when he was giving his categorical denial? did they already go into that room primed not to believe him? >> well you got to understand when you look at belichick, he's a guy that crosses the ts, dots the is. there's not a head coach that has a full grasp of everything that goes on within that organization. now, i do have a sense to believe him. however, based on what you saw in '07 in spygate, you go all the way back to the rams super bowl. if you ask a st. louis ram, ask kurt warner he felt like the patriots knew exactly what plays they were running when they were running them because they videotaped the walk through. the evidence was burned by the national football league. outside of the massachusetts area, bill belichick is not believable, regardless of what he said this morning. >> can i just point one thing out? the story back in 2007 that said the patriots were taping the st. louis rams' walk through was ultimately retrangted by the newspaper that published it. >> but on this story, all right,

11 of the 12 balls -- >> ask marshall faulk about that. >> the rams lost the game. >> marshall faulk and kurt warren earthquake the -- warner, the 14-point favorites. >> let's focus on the current story. 11 of the 12 balls underinflated. under what circumstance does this happen without somebody going something -- >> again, the details, hopefully we will find out. here's what i think is plausible, at least to me. >> you've looked into the physics? >> tom brady tells them. i like these things a little underinflated. you bring them in. the ref checks them pregame. that's what aaron rodgers is basically saying. he says we try to get it past the refs pregame. we overinflate. we hope the refs don't notice. sometimes we get away with it. sometimes we don't. my guess is something similar is going on here. the patriots are trying to get away with underinflating it. did the ref catch it? maybe in this case no.

>> they are doing something wrong, but your argument is everybody does something similar. >> there's a difference between gamesmanship and outright cheating. >> why have the rule? why is the rule in place? if there's not a big deal -- if pressure in the football is not a big deal why is it in the football rulebook? here are the facts. 2007, tom brady did an interview and said he likes to throw the football underinflated. 2006, when there was a change in the national football league tom brady and peyton manning were the two players that push pd the league for teams to be able to use their own footballs. facts are facts. you can't say because a guy goes auto out and scuffs up a football it's different than going out there and throwing the football where you can get a better grip of it because it's not up to the right pressure. it's two completely different things. >> speak to that point and that argument and what does tom brady have to tell everyone today in this much-anticipated presser?

>> you know, there's a report out there that he did stand before his teammates this morning in a full team meeting and say he does like the football a certain type of way. bill belichick alluded to that this morning. tom can tell you more about how he likes the football than bill belichick could tell you. i think bill belichick probably knows how tom brady likes his football, but we sort of are playing a little bit of word gymnastics in this situation here. but look tom brady can stand in front of there, as you guys mentioned, aaron rodgers likes it overinflated. i think that might be a little bit in play here that the officials, they do, you know weigh the balls about two hours and 15 minutes ahead of time. and then they're given back to the team. so they're not kept in the officials' locker room there before the game time. they go back to the team. so it's easy to doctor the ball up a little bit, maybe let a little bit of the air out. if it's for brady that he has a smaller hand or he just wants

that grip a little bit better so that he can get his accuracy the way he needs it to be then that's what he can do. and maybe in the past officials have turned a blind eye to it. but these are all the questions that we don't know the answers to yet. and we don't know if we ever will know the answers. >> steve, the big question here is what will the punishment be? what will the fine be? but really it's about reputation. i think that's going to be the biggest punishment. we took our poll. most people think that they knew about this, the patriots. give us a sense of how the country will respond. >> is it breaking the rules? yeah, it is breaking the rules. but this is a ball -- every one of these balls, they're underinflated. what happens after every single play? the referee picks up the ball. the side judge picks up the ball. at any point, if this was so glaring and it was so egregious that anybody could notice the difference between a regulation ball and a slightly underinflated ball the referee

could stop -- to me this puts it in a different realm. this puts it in the realm of holding is against the rules of football. on every play every player intentionally holds with an intent to get away with it to increase their kpet conclusive advantage. what do you say to a wide receiver who traps the ball? it hits the ground he tries to fool everybody into thinking he caught it. i put this more in the realm of that. gamesmanship. it is around the edges, but it's gamesmanship. >> mark, how do you respond to that? also to steve's argument that lots of quarterbacks do this this is relatively common. >> well i mean it's not gamesmanship. gamesmanship when you're trying to fool a referee to catch a football or holding on a specific play, you're spinning the story and taking the focus away from what it needs to be. the fact of the matter is two hours and 15 minutes before the game, the footballs were within -- the 12 along with with the backups the patriots provided, were within regulation. from that point forward, up until the first half when all the footballs were changed, they

were doctored. somebody from the patriots doctored the footballs. that's not gamesmanship. that's creating a competitive advantage where tom brady has been on record before saying in rainy conditions which informs foxborough on sunday it is better for him to throw an underpressurized football. so that's not gamesmanship. that's creating an advantage for tom brady that the indianapolis colts didn't have. indianapolis was tipped off by the baltimore ravens. they complained to the national football league in the regular season when they played them in indianapolis. many speculate the patriots have been doing this all season long. it's more than gamesmanship. you can't spin it that way. the patriots which were tainted before, are even tainted more now. >> and so chalise, walk us through that. we just heard two arguments about the level of this. for sports fans all over the country, they have an expectation that some amount of

gamesmanship happens on the field and flags get thrown. then there are still rules that are being followed. walk us through what the local reaction is if you would, to some of what we heard, which is maybe this cheating didn't help them win, wasn't crucial to their victory. last time i checked, that's not the issue. the issue is whether you broke the rules, not if at a given time that was crucial to your victory victory. >> right. i think the majority of patriots fans -- i've said there's about a 60/40 split from what i've seen and heard. about 60% of people are really just defensive and saying look people hate the patriots they hate bill belichick because they're so successful. they look for any and every excuse to bring them down. 40%, about, are patriots fans who are really upset about this and saying look we would have beat the colts with regulation football if they were at the proper psi. we did not need this to happen, so why are they doing this? why did they try to do this? it's taken away from their joy. i've had people tweet to me

they're not really that excited for the super bowl right now when really as a fan this should be the happiest time of the season for you. >> all right, steve, last word. >> first of all, this is going to be a hugely rated super bowl. people are going to tune in now. >> because of this? >> definitely. >> my final question you want to come down hard on the patriots for this talk about belichick's suspension, draft picks, i want to know what's the penalty going to be for the green bay packers and aaron rodgers. make sure it's the same because they did the same thing. >> very interesting. maybe that's the question we should be asking here in this debate. gamesmanship or cheating? >> as long as other people are cheating then it's fine. >> how come we talked about on national television in the middle of the season aaron rodgers overinflating the football and no one followed up on it? how come we're only talking about it when the new england patriots do it? >> how come you didn't talk about it then? >> mark very briefly. >> aaron rodgers, also when he

said that, also said the referees did take air of the football -- >> sometimes. sometimes. he said sometimes. >> i understand you love the pats, but stop spinning the story. >> go talk to the rams again, okay. >> we're done. >> it's going to be a show today, guys. thank you, all, for being with us. >> biggest upset in nfl history. >> so that tom brady press conference we're all waiting for has been pushed back. we're still ready to bring it to you as soon as it happens. but next in politics the president is on the road again. the yellow brick road. we'll tell you what message he brought to kansas. plus, does mitt romney have the heart or the brain? just saying. to move aside and let jeb bush run for president? we'll ask a republican watcher who's no coward. click your heels three times. this is an amazing tease and "the cycle" look back. it is thursday, january 22nd.

♪ ah, push it. ♪ ♪ ♪ push it. ♪ ♪ p...push it real good! ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ow! ♪ ♪ oooh baby baby...baby baby. ♪ if you're salt-n-pepa, you tell people to push it. ♪ push it real good. ♪ it's what you do. ♪ ah. push it. ♪ if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance you switch to geico. it's what you do. ♪ ah. push it. ♪ i'm pushing. i'm pushing it real good! can this decadent, fruit topped pastry... ...with indulgent streusel crumble, be from... fiber one. fiber one streusel.

alright, so this tylenol arthritis lasts 8 hours, but aleve can last 12 hours... and aleve is proven to work better on pain than tylenol arthritis. so why am i still thinking about this? how are you? aleve, proven better on pain.

cycling now, lots of fast-moving parts throughout the political world. let's get started. first, the president hits up another red state with his post-state of the union pitch. >> the verdict is in. middle class economics works, and these policies are going to continue to work as long as we don't let politics get in the way. >> meantime the most senior administration official in three decades is on the road in cuba. msnbc's andrea mitchell is also there. >> they face the same challenge.

they have to introduce transformation in their countries without changing basically what country has been. my prediction is both governments are going to work very hard to reach as many agreements on common issues that we can have. >> and fast-moving parts in the race for 2016. a meeting of the gop minds between jeb bush and mitt romney as hillary clinton mocks vladimir putin's re-election. >> you can imagine the conversation with putin. you know he was prime minister after president and one day says vladimir you think you'd like to be president again? i think i do. why don't we just go announce it? we'll tell dmitry he can be prime minister? excellent, excellent idea. >> sounds a lot like bill clinton to me. anyway, so much to do, so little time. let's get right to nbc's kristen welker at the white house. the president's heading back to the white house, where foreign affairs seems to be outpacing his domestic agenda today. >> well you're right about

that. first his domestic agenda president obama was in lawrence kansas earlier today where he was continuing to sell the policies and proposals he mapped out in his state of the union address, increasing taxes on wealthy americans to pay for middle-class priorities like tax breaks for childcare, for better education, but the white house keeping a close eye on foreign policy today starting in yemen with reports that yemen's president hadi resigned. white house press secretary josh earnest, who was traveling home as we speak aboard air force one, just spoke with reporters and said the administration has been monitoring those reports quite closely and trying to determine what the implications are. of course, the u.s. has worked very choselosely with yemen in terms of combatting aqap. so there's a lot of concern about the instability in that region. but josh, making it very clear, the primary concern is for u.s. personnel who are in yemen right now. the embassy has been evacuated

of all of its nonessential staff. so there are only essential staff who remain. earnest says at this point there's no indication they're going to evacuate more people but of course they continue to monitor that situation. and then they are also dealing with this controversy over the visit of israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. just to set the backdrop house speaker john boehner invited the prime minister to speak before congress. it is expected he will talk about the importance of sanctions and increased sanctions against iran. of course, that's something that president obama said he would veto if it found its way to his desk. you have a lot of republicans and some democrats trying to get that legislation passed in congress. the white house calling that a breach of protocol yesterday and then we learned late this afternoon that president obama will not meet with the prime minister while he's here. a spokesperson saying quote, as a matter of long standing practice and principle, we do

not see heads of state in close proximity to their elections. accordingly, the president will not meet with prime minister netanyahu because of the proximity to the israel election. that's the official word. obviously, the white house making it very clear that they were frustrated by that breach in protocol. they are also watching what is happening in cuba as you pointed out. you have high-level conversations going on as the united states and cuba try to normalize relations. the highest level talks that have occurred there if 35 years. back to you. >> kristen welker at the white house. thanks again. here with us now at the table is publisher of "the federalist" and senior fellow at the heartland institute. so the president's speech has been lauded as forceful optimistic, we've never seen this president before. and the nightly show seems to have a theory about why that is.

let's see that. >> doesn't he realize he just lost an historic election? i mean both houses by historic margins, even his own party was deserting him. i mean doesn't obama know he won't be able to get anything done in his last two years? oh oh he doesn't give a [ bleep ]. oh! >> so the president doesn't give a beep. how does the republican majority deal with a president who has that mind set? does the gop give a -- well, does the gop care? mpbls i'm not sure they do care. from their perspective, he's been giving them middle fingers for a long time back. it is a change in tone though. he seems to be a lot more unleashed now and maybe a little bit more open to kind of a bull worth-esque approach when it comes to speaking his mind.

i think this is the sort of thing you might have wanted to see from him a year ago. >> that's what got him elected in a lot of ways. people probably wanted to see this seven years ago. >> i feel like he's rewinding all of the things he's said about middle class priorities and is replaying them now. >> i mean, i agree with that. he really laid out something that people could believe in and buy into and make them show up at the polls. let's talk about what just went down in the house of representatives. they decided to pull this bill on abortion because some members of the republican caucus namely some of the women and some of the more moderate members, were very uncomfortable with the bill. they decided to pass a different abortion bill. i wanted to get your response to this quote from congressman charlie dent who said, you know with the new republican caucus week one we had a speaker election that did not go as well as a lot of us would have liked. week two we got into a big fight over deporting children something that a lot of us didn't want to have a discussion

about. week three we are now talking about rape and incest and reportable rapes and incest for minors. i just can't wait for week four. is this new republican governing majority here in the house and the senate are they getting off to the wrong start? >> well, charlie dent is a very moderate member of the republican coalition. i think it's interesting that this is a good example of how much the republican party today gives ammunition to those who say it's essentially a representation of money and business interests that plays the game of being culturally conservative. you're talking about a measure here, a 20-week ban is one of the most popular aspect that those who want to restrict abortion put forward. >> is making women report their rapes popular? >> you have to say a lot of these same members who are opposed to it this time voted for it last time. i think this is an example of a lot of people who are happy to vote this way before an election to get their base out, but then when it came time to actually

put it forward in a way it might end up going to the president's desk at some point, they were far more -- far less willing to put their name on it. >> i think that's a very interesting perspective and an interesting question. one push back that i would say is in particular at the state level after 2010 when we had republicans sweep across the country, we had an historic number of anti-choice legislation passed across the country. so to me it seems like their priorities lie pretty closely with the religious aspect. >> i think that's separate from a lot of the things you see at the federal level. that's something that's been a problem for republicans for a long time. they talk a good game when they aren't able to put those things into practice. but now that the responsibility is on them i think that there's a lot of skepticism about what they're going to do in terms of living up to it. right now there are hundreds of thousands of protesters on the mall like there are every year at this time, you know, who come year after year to protest on the abortion issue. this is a great big raised middle finger to them.

i think that's something that could have some consequences. >> just politics at its best. speaking of players and how they play their game and the republican party, the next few days there's a lot going on for 2016 gop contenders. steve king is hosting ten contenders in iowa, which we'll all be watching closely. the big meeting is happening today that people are talking about. mitt romney and jeb bush. this was already on the schedule before mitt romney made it known he wanted to run for president. i'm sure jeb bush was hoping this was going to be a meeting where he could maybe get his support. this will probably play out differently. will they come out saying, you know, it's got to be one of us. >> the thing that's crazy about this is at the original time they were scheduling meeting, it had a completely different flair. this is the young guy coming along, giving his respect, paying homage to the don who run the neighborhood for so long. turns out the don doesn't want to stop running the neighborhood. he doesn't just want a taes he wants the whole thing. i think that's a problem in terms of going forward. i would love to be a fly on the

wall. >> he's like putin without the power. wants another go at it. want other big news in politics today, u.s. attorney here in new york charging and arresting one of the most powerful democrats in new york on major corruption charges. let's take a listen to that prosecutor today. >> we allege that sheldon siler have effectively converted $500,000 in public money into over $3 million in personal riches, which is a nice profit on being a public official. >> pretty explosive charges against one of the most powerful democrats in new york. all of this growing out of andrew cuomo's anti-corruption commission which he started then dismantled. what do you make of these allegations? >> i think it's to see what all the dominos are going to be from this. i think this is another example of how much the state grant game which is something that is largely ignored, is actually an enormously profitable thing to do at the state level. attaching all these various

permission and referrals to them that allow all sorts of opportunities for kickbacks. there's a rot of things that have happened like this in other states but nothing to this level and no one of this prominence. >> bob, thank you. >> thanks. still ahead, patriots poster boy tom brady answers questions on deflate gate. his live press conference is less than an hour away. and next rethinking what it takes to land a dream job. i'm pretty sure i can't be nfl quarterback, but you never know.

♪ [audible safety beeping] ♪ [audible safety beeping] ♪ [audible safety beeping] ♪ the nissan rogue, with safety shield technologies. the only thing left to fear is your imagination. now save up to $1,000 when you finance the 2015 nissan rogue. nissan. innovation that excites.

by the end of this decade two in three job openings will require some higher education. two in three. and yet, we still live in a country where too many bright striving americans are priced out of the education they need. it's not fair to them and it's sure not smart for our future. and that's why i'm sending this congress a bold new plan to

lower the cost of community college. to zero. >> that was one of the big proposals from the state of the union on tuesday. two free years of community college. and there are a lot of good things about this. it could help stem the tide of crushing student loan debt which now tops $1 trillion. and our next guest argues some dream jobs that are available right now only require a two-year associate's degree. but with half of recent college graduates currently unemployed and over 3 million jobs unfilled is two years of free college enough? an expert in matching qualified workers with open jobs and also the author of "job u: how it find wealth and success by developing the skills companies actually need." thank you for being with us. you're from australia. i love hearing advice from someone who's not from the u.s. but the big question that we all ask ourselves right now is how do we remain competitive in the 21st century? he's proposing two years of free college. is that right next step? is that enough? >> look i think that you really need to look at what's going on

outside the borders of the u.s. we've got this technological change. we've got globalization. and all better off. the way that people are having to do business is changing and employers are having to reacts. one of the challenges is that the education systems are just not dapting to this change. this is why you've been talking about this mismatch. you know, high unemployment, yet we've got this enormous amount of jobs. 600,000 jobs unfilled just in manufacturing. advanced manufacturing. >> i was going to ask you, what the most needed jobs? what are the minimum requirements, the minimum skills to get them? >> i think there's an enormous amount of jobs out there where two years of community college is a great steppingstone. i think it's about the right education at the right time. i think what the president is talking about is engaging people and to have a productive economy, you need to have people engaged at all levels. there's very high youth unemployment. it's important to connect people

to the world of work and a community college is a great place to do that. so there is something in this for every person in the country. it's about setting up the next generation of workers and the next generation of taxpayers. >> i mean what about the problem people say that a four-year degree is becoming less about sort of the skills and the ability to do a job when you come out of it and more about just a signal to employers. that doesn't seem like a positive development to me. does giving people free education, does that help with that issue? >> look it's an expensive signal. the average student loan debt $30,000. i was speaking to a young lady last night, $85,000 she has in debt. if we had an $85,000 debt hanging over our head that's a lot of money to pay back before you even get to go. i think it's very much got to be, as i said about this idea of the right education. and for people who know where they want to go to a four-year college, great. go do that. >> like a specialized skill. >> if you know where you want to go. but there are thousands and

thousands of people -- >> what if you want to be a poet? >> exactly. you have to look at what the jobs are. i think one of the huge things the president is trying to do here is look at correcting this labor market mismatch. straight up front, nothing is ever free. this is money coming from the taxpayers' purse. it's about where is this money going to come from. there's money in the system and it's about how the taxpayers' money is best invested. so any of this money needs to be spent really addressing where these skill shortage industries are. i think that's going to be the key. >> but if there is this skills gap, this skills mismatch situation where employers aren't able to find the employees that they want, shouldn't they just lift wages? and we haven't seen any increase in wages. >> yeah k look there's a slight movement of wages, but i think you make a great point there. this is not government's problem alone. really, the president was talking about looking at the skills required out to 2030. i mean businesses need to take a view. in my business i'm looking at

10 15 years ahead to build a strong labor pipeline. i think that it's really about, you know, if you look at the cycles of government, they're fairly short. i think employers really have to step up to the plate and have to say, well, what am i going to do to invest in skills programs? now, wages is one area for sure. no problem. you need to remain competitive. but i think it's about offering on the job training. i mean a lot of people are very interested in getting a job. and then actually getting some skills while -- >> does your company struggle with finding people with skills? >> absolutely. i work in about six countries. in every country, this is the same problem, this globalization. so i practice what i preach. not only do i talk and write about this i actually started as an apprentice because the type of learning that i needed was very much this hands-on style. i like to learn by doing. so an apprenticeship path was right for me. then i ended up at harvard business school. i don't think people need to look at this silo that often

goes on. should i select going to community college? should i go to a four-year college? should i get a job? i think the answer is you can have it all. >> yeah. such an important conversation. we've got to get it right. thank you so much for being with us. >> thank you so much. we're waiting to hear from super bowl bound quarterback tom brady. what will he say about allegations of cheating by the new england patriots? more on that. that's next. [ hoof beats ] i wish... please, please, please, please, please. [ male announcer ] the wish we wish above all...is health. so we quit selling cigarettes in our cvs pharmacies. expanded minuteclinic

for walk-in medical care. and created programs that encourage people to take their medications regularly. introducing cvs health. a new purpose. a new promise... to help all those wishes come true. cvs health. because health is everything.

for most people, earning cash back ends here, at the purchase. but there's a new card in town. introducing the citi® double cash card. it lets you earn cash back when you buy and again as you pay.

that's cash back twice. it's cash back with a side of cash back. the citi double cash card. the only card that lets you earn cash back twice on every purchase with 1% when you buy and 1% as you pay . with two ways to earn, it makes a lot of other cards seem one-sided. back with breaking news. everyone anxiously awaiting that press conference from patriots quarterback tom brady. what will he say the about deflate gate? so far nbc sports has learned he told teammates he prefers his footballs inflated a certain way. perhaps he will expand on that statement in the moments to come. here's what ari's been wondering. will this scandal have any impact on the super bowl? the short answer there, it's unlikely. but let's rewind for just a moment to an unexpectedly defiant pats coach bill

belichick just this morning. don't look now, tom, you're about to be thrown under a bus. >> tom's personal preferences on his footballs are something that he can talk about in much better detail, and more information than i could possibly provide. >> so for now, the ball is in qb and glamour boy tom brady's court, and he will hold that news conference in the next hour. right now nbc's peter alexander is back with us. this time from the phone inside gillette for that press conference. peter, what are we expecting to hear here? >> well we hear from tom brady a short time from now, as you reported. nbc news was first to report that tom brady had actually spoken out to his teammates earlier today. those teammates telling me inside the locker room during a prescheduled meeting that bill belichick traditionally heads up tom brady effectively took the mic and told them that he

does like the footballs a certain way, and he encourage them, like he would be to focus on next week's super bowl. here's more of our conversations with some of tom brady's teammates inside the locker room a short time ago. >> do you have faith that tom brady had nothing to do with the balls being underinflated? >> i'll tell you one thing. if bill said he doesn't know what's going on if bill doesn't, you know -- >> did tom? >> if bill said he has no idea, you know, what happened then that's all that matters. >> do you have faith that tom brady had nothing to do with the balls being underinflated? >> i just know that we practice with worse balls than what we played with that night. >> well the other reports bill belichick made is he said during his news conference today that he in practice would do everything he could to make the balls more difficult for his players to use, saying if they practiced in those just unpleasant conditions it would better prepare them for games

themselves. . you're right. today all the focus is on tom brady. the legendary broadcaster john madden speaking out a short time ago, saying that ultimately this would fall on the into the hands of tom brady. it would be his decision that would drive the way the balls were manipulated for the game. but to also be clear, players have spoken. former nfl players all agree there's not a single quarterback in the league who doesn't, in their words, doctor the ball in some way to try to give them an advantage in the game. >> all right. very interesting stuff there, peter, alexander. thank you so much. and let's bring in rand getlan and b.j. shekter executive editor of "sports illustrated." rand, let me start with you. what do you expect tom brady to come out and say here? >> it'll be interesting to see what he ultimately cops to here. you know you saw belichick basically say this is in tom brady's court. there's a very low likelihood

that the two of them have not discussed the implications of this strategy. whether it's true or not is irrelevant to the discussion at hand. i do expect that tom brady, to some extent, given the comments that have come out already, in terms of him liking the balls inflated, i expect him to take some responsibility here. if nothing else, he's going to say, yes, it's true, there is a certain inflation i like the ball at in order to play. >> b.j. what did you think of peter alexander's new reporting there from inside the locker room, those responses we heard from teammates? >> well i think rand is right. this whole thing was orchestrate orchestrated. bill belichick doesn't just throw tom brady, his star quarterback, under the bus without talking to brady about it. brady is charming. everybody likes him. i think he's going to have some explanation. i don't think he's going to go as far as falling on the sword, but he's going to take some responsibility and try to make this go away a little bit. >> and the practice thing, i want to read on that. what belichick said is look my personal coaching philosophy is to make things as difficult as

possible for players in practice with footballs. we practice with balls that are as bad as they can be. wet, sticky, cold slippery however bad we can make them i make them. who cares what they practice with? that's not the issue. >> right. you look at, you know, this is very analogous to pitchers in baseball. they doctor the balls. they use pine tar and sandpaper. this has been going on for years and years and years in every sport. the margin for error in victory is so small, especially in the nfl, that quarterbacks like pitchers are going to search for any advantage they have. quarterbacks have said they will do this in one way or another to try to doctor the balls to make it to their liking. >> yeah rand b.j. said a minute ago everyone likes tom brady. do they all like tom brady? i want to read something he said just a few months ago when he was asked when he would retire. he said quote, when i suck i'll retire. i don't plan on sucking for a long time. this is someone who's not known

to be humble. is this why we're so fascinated by this all waiting for what he has to say, because of the team the patriots and because it's tom brady after all? >> yeah i mean you make a great point. there are a lot of things to love about tom brady if you're a person that likes to see people win in life. there are a lot of reasons to hate tom brady if you don't like to see people marry supermodels and live in us a ten tashs mansions. you know the point about the patriots is important. they got caught in spygate in 2007. ultimately, bill belichick got in trouble, the franchise got in trouble, lost a draft pick. i think a lot of folks would like there to be an excuse for why their teams have lost so often to the patriots. i don't think the underinflated balls is the reason. >> that was the steve kornacki argument earlier. >> rand how much damage does this controversy do to the patriots organization to the sport of football which has had

a lot of controversy of late and also to the impebding super bowl? >> well reactions have been varied. there was a sports caster who said he believes if it's proven the patriots did, in fact underinflate these balls purposefully, she believes the sanctions should be more strict than they were in bountygate. of course, there were allegations of payments for players to injure other players. to me i think you're taking quite a leap there to say they should be punished further for underinflating balls than for trying to hurt a human being. one thing that is clear, we certainly love talking about the patriots. if there's a cheating scandal, even better. and this is one of those things we're getting a lot of mileage out of. >> indeed. it is kind of an irresistible story. rand getlan thank you so much. b.j., stick with us. we're awaiting that conference by patriots quarterback tom brady. that'll be in the 4:00 eastern hour. what will he say? jonathan is on the edge of his seat. more on deflate gate is next.

sunday dinners at my house... it's a full day for me, and i love it. but when i started having back pain my sister had to come help. i don't like asking for help. i took tylenol but i had to take six pills to get through the day. so my daughter brought over some aleve. it's just two pills, all day! and now, i'm back! aleve. two pills. all day strong, all day long. and now introducing aleve pm for a better am. (son) oh no... can you fix it, dad? yeah, i can fix that. (dad) i wanted a car that could handle anything. i fixed it! (dad) that's why i got a subaru legacy. (vo) symmetrical all-wheel drive plus 36 mpg. i gotta break more toys. (vo) introducing the all-new subaru

legacy. it's not just a sedan. it's a subaru. no matter who you are, if you have type 2 diabetes, you know it can be a struggle to keep your a1c down. so imagine ... what if there was a new class of medicine that works differently to lower blood sugar? imagine loving your numbers. introducing once-daily invokana®. it's the first of a new kind of prescription medicine that's used along with diet and exercise to lower blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes. invokana® is a once-daily pill that works around the clock to help lower a1c. here's how: the kidneys allow sugar to be absorbed back into the body. invokana® reduces the amount of sugar allowed back in ... and sends some sugar out through the process of urination. and while it's not for weight loss, it may help you lose some weight. invokana® can cause important side effects including dehydration, which may cause some people to have loss of body water and salt. this may also cause you to feel dizzy, faint

lightheaded, or weak especially when you stand up. other side effects may include kidney problems, genital yeast infections urinary tract infections changes in urination, high potassium in the blood or increases in cholesterol. do not take invokana® if you have severe kidney problems or are on dialysis or if allergic to invokana® or its ingredients. symptoms of allergic reaction may include rash, swelling, difficulty breathing or swallowing. if you experience any of these symptoms, stop taking invokana® and call your doctor right away or go to the nearest hospital. tell your doctor about any medical conditions medications you are taking, and if you have kidney or liver problems. using invokana® with a sulfonylurea or insulin may increase risk of low blood sugar. it's time. lower your blood sugar with invokana®. imagine loving your numbers. ask your doctor about invokana®.

don't settle for 4g lte coverage that's smaller or less reliable when only one network is america's largest and most reliable 4g lte network: verizon. with xlte, our 4g lte bandwidth has doubled in over 400 cities. and now, save without settling. get 2 lines with 10gb of data for just $110... or 4 lines for just $140. and get a $150 bill credit for each smartphone you switch. hurry! offers end january 31st. only on verizon. we are back following a developing story. all eyes on tom brady, new england quarterback, expected eded to weigh in on deflate gate. bill is still with us reporting on all of this. everyone everyone thinking

about what tom brady is going to say. a lot of people excited about the super bowl in any normal year. you don't have to be a sports fan to weigh in on this. >> you're weighing in. >> proof not only at this table. we also heard breaking from harry reid democratic leader in the senate who wanted to get in on this debate. let's take a listen to that. >> as far as i know. i can't believe the national football league with the billions of dollars they make, couldn't at least determine how much air should be in a football football. i don't know why it should be left up to the teams. >> harry reid there. you see him having the ban gaj from that injury he sustained. he's getting surgery on his eye this week. we should mention. but again, none of that held him back from weighing in on this. hey, why can't the nfl deal with something like this? >> in a way they do. they test the balls. two hours before every game. they check the pressure and then

it goes to the team's hands. so there is a small window where they may be able to do something with the ball. in a way it's all very silly. >> you don't see it as cheating? that's really what we're talking about here. what should the punishment be. >> this is far for the course in football. >> i think a lot of teams do things like that. spy gate is another level. if you're taking team's practices, you're trying to steal playbooks, to me that's another level. this is a small advantage. look what happens in golf. politicians, businessmen, everybody. what do they do? oh, the ball is in the woods, let me kick that out a little bit. will it affect a round? maybe, maybe not. so whatever happened in terms of penalties and did he or didn't

he do it? i don't know. it's got to be massive destruction for the patriots and in a way the seahawks. >> you look at richard sherman and everyone likes to focus on him. he doesn't say anything and gets fined. now the focus is on them. now everybody hates him. it's the us against world mentality. >> we're going to prove you wrong. >> athletes look for the edge. coaches look to motivate you. bulletin board material. patriots are scum. we hate them. they have no chance now. >> we're talking about balls, inflated deflates whatever. we're also talking about bill belichick and brady. i'm not a sports fan at all.

how huge are these two people? >> if you look at a law firm in new york the most senior partner at the most firm in the world. that's the patriots. bill belichick is the senior partner. tom brady is the breadwinner. he brings in all the clients, all the money. he's front and center. that's your analogy there. >> who the the junior associate? i wish we had time to find out. thank you for your reporting and analogies. we are waiting as we say, for super bowl quarterback tom brady. the podium is set for him in foxboro. ♪ nineteen years ago, we thought "wow, how is there no way to tell the good from the bad?" so we gave people the power of the review. and now angie's list is revolutionizing local service again. you can easily buy and schedule services

from top-rated providers. conveniently stay up to date on progress. and effortlessly turn your photos into finished projects with our angie's list app. visit angieslist.com today. ♪ you're driving along, having a perfectly nice day, when out of nowhere a pick-up truck slams into your brand new car. one second it wasn't there and the next second... boom! you've had your first accident. now you have to make your first claim. so you talk to your insurance company and... boom! you're blindsided for a second time. they won't give you enough money to replace your brand new car. don't those people know you're already shaken up? liberty mutual's new car replacement will pay for the entire value of your car plus depreciation. call and for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident. switch to liberty mutual insurance and you could save up to

$423 dollars. call liberty mutual for a free quote today at see car insurance in a whole new light. liberty mutual insurance. ♪ turn around ♪ ♪ every now and then i get a little bit hungry ♪ ♪ and there's nothing good around ♪ ♪ turn around, barry ♪ ♪ i finally found the right snack ♪ [ female announcer ] fiber one. you total your brand new car. nobody's hurt,but there will still be pain. it comes when your insurance company says they'll only pay three-quarters of what it takes to replace it. what are you supposed to do, drive three-quarters of a car? now if you had a liberty mutual new car replacement, you'd get your whole car back. i guess they don't want you driving around on three wheels. smart. new car replacement is just one of the features that come standard with a base liberty mutual

policy. and for drivers with accident forgivness,rates won't go up due to your first accident. learn more by calling switch to liberty mutual and you can save up to $423. for a free quote today,call liberty mutual insurance at see car insurance in a whole new light. liberty mutual insurance.

we continue to follow the breaking news out of foxboro where tom brady is about to speak. alex wagner has a star studded panel to cover all of it led by sports authority mike barnacle. that starts right now. >> we are awaiting remarks from patriots quarterback tom brady who now finds himself at the center of the deflategate controversy, following espn's report that 11 of the 12 balls used by the patriots were deflated below nfl regulations during last week's nfl championship over the colts. on monday it was a charge that brady laughed off. [ laughter ] i think i heard it all at this point. no. that's ridiculous. i don't even respond to stuff like this. >> today the two-time super bowl mvp finds himself in the eye of the storm especially after bill belichick wiped his hands clean of the the