this morning my question did you see how lynch responded to questions this week? plus the cash cow that is the nfl. and the ladies of the league. but first i have a confession to make. i love football. >> hi everyone. my name is melissa. >> hi melissa. >> i'm a fan. so, everyone i guess it all began when i watched my first football game. i mean i was just a kid. i loved to sit with my daddy in his big chair as he cheered his team and ranted against the opposition. listening to him while he watched football was like being

exposed to a foreign language. i was dying to crack the code. did someone hold? what is offsides? but the real addiction started in high school. you see, i was on the cheerleading squad and our team was great, as in our star running back, walter henderson, went top to play for the green bay packers and win a super bowl. great. and when you're in a town like mine that loved football and your team is fantastic, it's hard not to just go and give yourself totally to it and love everything about the game. and i do i love it all. the satisfying crunch of a brutal tackle stopping an opponent in his tracks. the thrill of an unexpected interception shifting the energy of a contest. the beauty of a perfect touchdown rush and the sheer abandon of these gladiators as they celebrate their victory in dance. i am addicted to football. and i know it's an addiction, because i just can't quit it even though i know it's bad for me. even though i am fully aware that indulging in all of

football's highest highs comes along with the consequences of some very low lows. like the one-third of those gladiators who devote their lives to the sport only to see their lives diminished and sometimes cut short as a consequence of their devotion to the game. last year "the new york times" reported on the rates of brain damage among retired players are materially higher than those expected in the general population, and the players will develop these diagnoses at notably younger ages than the general population. i know this is happening even as i celebrate the collisions that start the ticking time bomb that could one day explode in those players' brains. but i keep coming back. i keep coming back for the violent, physical aggression that is so thrilling between players when it happens on the field. even, as i know the nfl fumbled its response to violence when players have turned it against more vulnerable people off the

field. i can't shake that football monkey off my back even though there is plenty of evidence that the product is not pure because today, on the high holiday of football worshippers everywhere the integrity of the sport has been tainted by the scandal of deflategate. when the seattle seahawks face off against the nogew england patriots it will be in the shadow of an ongoing investigation into whether or not the pats underinflated footballs to their advantage in the afc championship game. and, no not even that scandal will stop me from cheering on today's exhibition of football at its best. the camaraderie, the courage and the leadership that we see exemplified on the field. and although i always very much am aware of how football falls short of those ideals every time the washington team plays with its dehumanizing and offensive name and logo i'll still be there in front of the tv ready for some football.

because on gameday, football just brings out my inner addict. it just calls to me. i've got no control over it i've just got to go to it, even though i know that this addiction of mine ain't cheap. this habit helps line the pockets of my main product pusher, the nfl, to the tune of almost $11 billion, making it the most profitable pro sports league in the united states. and some of those billions are coming directly from my and your wallets, thanks to taxpayer money that supports hometown teams and the hundreds of millions of tax breaks enjoyed by the league the teams, sponsors and corporate fans. in fact we are so sought in the t. r -- thrall of this sport they can guarantee a captive audience. the super bowl is television's highest rated event. and today marketers counting on all of us to keep watching through the commercial breaks are shelling out a record $4.5

million for every 30 seconds of our attention, pausebecause they know that when it comes to football we just can't turn away. which is why i'm ready to admit it. i have a problem. joining me now, dave ziron, sports editor for "the nation" magazine and author of "brazil's dance with the devil, the world cup, the olympics and the fight for democracy." wade davis, former nfl player and executive director of the you can play project. kavetha davidson and chris valetta, author of "team works, the gridiron playbook for building a business team." thanks to all of you for being here to share my addiction with me a little bit on this super bowl sunday. i want to start with you, chris, on this idea that football is a uniquely american sport. you know soccer is played

globally basketball is played globally, but this crazy game is just ours. so i guess part of what i'm wondering is whether that's part of our almost irrational attachment to it as a people. >> it's interesting. the first time i was in new zealand and told somebody i played american football, they said isn't that the one that you've got to put pads on for? i thought that was pretty funny, knowing the popularity of the sport here. but it is an amazing spectacle here in the united states. i am a former player. i'm proud that i played the game and proud to represent the game. i like to represent it for not just the sort of gladiator mindset on the field, which i believe has some benefits but i also like to represent it for what it can take off the field and i think that is actually a tremendous bridge that can be created. and i do think that the nfl is in a power position to better build that bridge. i think it's been tarnished, it's been beat up especially this year but there's certainly some opportunities to take advantage of the pr sort of

nightmare that we're under. >> i was looking back kind of digging back into this obsession. teddy roosevelt is kind of thinking through manhood and american identity at the turn of the 20th century. his own son playing for the team, this was 1905. there is teddy roosevelt's team is injured, right, playing for his ivy league team and in that same year 1905 19 deaths caused by intercollegiate football. but we didn't stop. i mean that's 1905. including the president's son. we were like well yeah but this is our sport. is there -- should we be reforming it? should we be fixing it or should we be abandoning it. >> i think we need to come to the realization that there is no such thing as safe football. there can be such a thing as safer football. the fact of the matter is the organization, the nfl and the ncaa as well has not taken enough steps to make it safer and has actually taken steps to

deflect from the ways that can make it safer. i think what chris said is absolutely true that there are redeeming qualities in having football. there are great effects of athletes coming off the field and everything. those of us who criticize the game and criticize the way that the power has corrupted the game as much as it has just want to make it better i think. >> and it's always interesting to me that your response in part to what you see as challenges in the game in the nfl around issues of bigotry or pushing back make you want to open up the game to more people right. the you can play isn't about let's get rid of it it's about let's expand it and make it possible to get the kind of benefits that chris talks about of teamwork of camaraderie, of individual sacrifice. so how do you square that circle? here are the challenges i clearly see in it that you were part of it and yet a desire to open it up to more folks. >> i would say america without the sport of football is like breakfast without bacon. >> oh well what would be the

point? >> exactly. so why even keep living. but as chris said we're both biased. the sport of football has brought me so much. i wouldn't be here if it wasn't for that so i think we just have to focus on the positive and really also think about what some of the other benefits that the nfl can do. i think they could move from like this one-time types of giving to more of like a philanthropic type of model where it takes on the form of like the ford foundation and creates kind of an institutional model where they say, hey, we have these issues of domestic violence, of addiction, of brain injuries, right, and really start to invest in doing some systematic changes that now we can say this sport isn't just about greed but it's actually about doing some work to reform our entire world. >> so dave i have to say i know what's going to happen this evening. we're all going to tune in. when we tune in to watch the

game, we'll also be watching on social media. for the first quarter or so, you will not so much be watching the game on social media, is that right? >> for the first 20 minutes i'll be live tweeting an episode of "the facts of life." it's my act of civil disobedience as everybody tunes in to watch the super bowl. it's also a way to say as much as i am a fan of this game that if we lived in a sane world this sport would not exist. this is brain damage for profit that's what it is. science is not this sport's friend. the more we learn about it the more we have to reckon with the fact that it is dangerous. if you prohibited football in this country, it would be like prohibition in the 20s times 100. there would be speak-easies in texas of 10-year-old children playing football. you have to know the secret knock to see them play each other. it would be nuts if you tried to ban football. >> and also if it would be like breakfast without bacon, with

all due respect to my vegetarian and vegan viewers, it might also be like less -- i mean that smnome things that are not safe in life are also worth being part of. >> but it's worth it for us to watch as opposed to play. i was watching the game the other day. every sunday i practice what homer simpson calls the practice of ass horizonology on my couch. she said would you let jacob play this? i said no jacob is not playing it. she said how can you watch it? i said you need to leave. i want to pause. up next how a billion here and a billion there start to add up for kwautquite the haul for roger goodell's nfl. and how nicki minaj likes to pregame for the big game with our guy, craig melvin, when we come back. major: ok fitness class! here's our new trainer ensure active heart health. crowd: yayyyy!

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on friday nfl commissioner roger goodell went before the press to deliver comments and take questions in his annual state of the league news conference. about seven minutes into his opening statement, he dropped this shoutout to one of the nfl's media partners.

>> finally, on steps to grow the game and serve the fans we are excited about the success of thursday night football and the extension of our agreement with cbs. we have the best partners in media, and together we will continue to develop new platforms, expand fan interaction and deepen fan engagement. >> now according to a report in "gq" magazine during goodell's time as commissioner he has been able to boost total league revenues about 65%, and he's told his team owners that he wants to see those revenues jump to $25 billion over the next 12 years. the reason he's able to be so confident in those estimates is due in large part to that fan engagement and those media partners he mentioned. you see, unlike the latest episode of your favorite show nfl games are often considered dvr-proof because while you may

be able to wait a day or two to find out just how olivia pope manages her scandal of the week we generally want to know whether our favorite team won or lost in realtime which means nfl games are the one televised event where we likely won't be fast forwarding through the commercials, and that makes the games very valuable for the networks that host them. so much so that they're willing to pay the nfl these premium prices each year for the privilege. $950 million from nbc, $1 billion from cbs, $1.1 billion from fox, $1.9 billion from espn and a $1.5 billion deal with directv which all adds up to more than $6 billion each year no roger goodell's nfl. so i know i have a football addiction, but i'm just saying my employer may be jonesing particularly hard. is there anything trouble about -- i mean is this just good ole free enterprise? people want to watch it we want

to broadcast it everybody is making money, here we go. or is there something that should make us go oh i feel a little icky about those billions. >> i think there's nothing wrong with feeling icky about these billions rolling in. part of the "gq" story was the description of bob kraft, owner of the new england patriots saying hey, wait a minute we've got a problem with domestic violence and calls up the head of cbs and get us in front of us, get us a woman to interview commissioner goodell. so the idea that it's all stage managed because professional football is now the tent pole. and him bragging about thursday night football when that's the number one complaint of the players association and the players shows how little roger goodell has learned because of the extra injuries because of the lack of preparation. so he says he's listening and that to me is proof positive roger goodell hasn't lenders a thing. when i saw his press conference

all i could think of was talk about deflated balls. >> dave zirin for the win. let's back out of whether the nfl is a good partner to communities. if in fact players are saying hey, thursday night problem is a problem for us. we need our week-to-week we need those full seven days because of the kind of physical game this is. is there an argument to be made that that's actually bad labor practice even if it brings big money and an additional partner? >> the nfl is the worst of the four professional sports leagues when it comes to its labor practices. pack a few months ago richard sherman did a mock press conference where he made fun of the impetus for players to give media statements in the marshawn lynch example and one of the major things he mentioned was you want us to talk to the media but you don't want us to voice our displeasure with thursday night football games. you want to talk about player safety but you don't want to talk about the damage this is doing to our bodies to have these extra games.

>> i would say that as a player you may agree or disagree but in games, in weeks that have shorter weeks because of thursday night football or what have you, the practices have changed dramatically in the nfl since -- within the last five years. >> they're taking off the pads. >> pads are off, you're wearing shells, it's not nearly as physical as it once was. two-a-days or three-a-days that used to happen back in the day, those are almost gone for the most part. so i would say that practices are adjusted to the type of schedule. >> let me ask real quick on the two-a-days and three-a-days is that gone just at the professional level? because i swear i see in the kids in the high school level doing the two-a-days. >> even at the high school level coaches, athletic trainers and municipalities are becoming much smarter about the game the safety implicationing of being out in the heat. kids are out in shorts and t-shirts for the first couple of

days to get acclimated to the weather and then graduate to shoulder pads and graduate a little further. so monumental steps have been taken in terms of player safety during practice. but i would say that look this is a -- the league has every right to make money, and it's clearly in high demand. there's certainly no argument about that. i would say that there's separating the issue of the nfl and its ability to be a gigantic business and also the issues of the day facing the nfl. domestic violence murder with aaron hernandez and you've got child abuse. emotionally charged, aggressive intense subjects that are certainly addressing major issues within the nfl, but these are also major national issues not just nfl issues. >> stick with us our guests are all hanging out with us throughout the day today, but up next fans and celebrities are all flocking to glendale. we're going to take you there for a live report and a glimpse of the party scene. super bowl sunday in nerdland.

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quickoff is still more than eight hours away but the party started days ago. fans have been ramping up to game time with pregame filled by selects and pregame performances. some people are in phoenix only for the parties. joining me now from glendale a man who has attended some of these preparties nbc's craig melvin. craig, what's going on there? it looks kind of foggy. >> reporter: you know what melissa, let's start there. you're right, it is very foggy. this was not in the forecast. this is a fog that is so thick it's actually stopped air travel into sky harbor international airport. that's the big airport in phoenix. ground stoppage right now. we expect that to be lifted at some point soon and we also expect this to burn off as well. the forecast for game time this evening is supposed to be just

fine, mid-60s, the sun is supposed to be out. in fact the dome here they're going to have the roof back so it should be quite nice once the seahawks and pats take the field at 6:30 eastern, 4:30 here. you mentioned the parties. there's been a lot of them melissa harris-perry, a whole heck of a lot of parties. and here's the thing. you know we have to get up for these live shots on the east coast but obviously the parties are in local time so every night we've been getting like two or three hours of sleep, and i'm not a young man anymore so it's going to take me about a week to recover. >> you should be totally used to two or three hours sleep at this point, right? this is not such a big deal. a year of that at this point almost. >> reporter: he started sleeping through the night and it threw me off. six months ago i would have been fine. >> let me ask you about nicki minaj because i loved seeing the two of you together. she posted a picture on social media with the two of you together saying that you are dope which i concur about. >> reporter: really?

that's nice. >> tell me what's your party experience been so far? >> reporter: nicki minaj is performing at the bud light party friday night. bud light had this big party at the house of whatever but folks had to demonstrate they were up for whatever so you have a thousand folks that show up for this concert not knowing who was going to perform. it was nicki minaj. so we sat down before the concert and she could not have been more gracious. she is one of the biggest names in rap right now in america. she's about to kick off a big tour. and i asked her whether for her the super bowl was about the game or whether the super bowl was about the parties. here's what she said. >> the super bowl weekend itself is it about the game is it about the parties? >> for me it's about the parties. of course, duh. >> reporter: at least she was honest at least she was honest.

>> i have a question for you. if you had to pick which is the best watching the game at home alone so people aren't talking over it attending a super bowl party at a friend's house or actually attending the super bowl? >> reporter: i know this is going to sound odd, but i -- like at a friend's house watching the game with people who want to watch the game. there's nothing worse than going to a super bowl with folks who don't want to watch the game and just want to eat and talk. this is the second one we've been to it's a fantastic experience, love being inside. but you don't get to see the commercials, you can't drink as much as you want you can't eat as much as you want you're a bit restricted melissa harris-perry. >> all right. so just in case our bosses are listening, craig doesn't want to go to the super bowl next year. >> reporter: that is not what i said. >> i'll go i'll go. all right, nbc's craig melvin in glendale, arizona. thanks for showing up and hanging out with us a bit. >> reporter: good to see you, my friend. while temperatures at the stadium in glendale will be in

the mild and even enviable 60s tonight, winter storm line us is headed to the northeast with widespread snow and freezing rain. the storm is moving away from the great lakes, but they're not out of the woods just yet. a snowstorm has been upgraded to blizzard status by the national weather service. some parts of the area could see 17 inches of snow. joining me now is nbc news correspondent kevin tibbles in chicago. kevin, are the winds really picking up there? >> reporter: the winds are blowing the snow sideways. i just want to point out that we really loved listening to craig melvin coming to us from sunny glendale arizona, as we were waiting to come and deliver this remarkable shot from the shores of lake michigan which looks this morning like a giant super gulp slushy at this time. temperatures are just below freezing. they're going to plummet as soon

as the snow stops blowing sideways. i have no idea how many flights have been cancelled at o'hare airport, but i can tell you that there's probably more than a handful. and the city of chicago has more than 350 snow plows on the streets today trying to keep the roads open but my had aadvice would be just curl up on the couch, light the fire and wait for the game to start. don't go outside, take it from me. >> kevin, i just made a plea to get to the super bowl next year but i'm pretty sure you're the one that deserves it. that weather looks rough. >> reporter: save me a chicken wing out there, craig melvin. >> kevin tibbles in chicago, please try to stay warm. coming up head injuries in the league and among our smallest little pigskin players. but first, my letter of the week with a twist that i'm telling you you are not going to want to miss.

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so this is the moment of the program each week when i send a letter to someone whose actions or words have made me just have to respond. but today a first. i am yielding the floor to nerdland favorite, dave zirin. this week it is dave who really has something to say and a letter to send. dave. >> don't you hate it when a self-righteous pundit gets in front of a camera and says to someone in power, sir or madam, if you have any decency, you would resign. allow me to join their ranks. the person in power i'm addressing the person i'm asking to break out the want ads and find new work is nfl commissioner roger goodell. dear mr. goodell, it's me dave. after the scandal-plagued year that the league just suffered through when everyone from bob costas to the folks in vegas assumed you'd be fired, it would

be better for all of us if you just resigned. no amount of spin no number of media people rushing to your defense, no series of public service announcements featuring nfl players saying "no more" can hide a simple fact. 55 times since you became commissioner in 2006 a player in your league was arrested for domestic vieolence and 55 times you did next to nothing. if not for a certain leaked videotape, ray rice would have been the 56th time you sat on your hands. when you wipe away the lawyer speak about whether you saw the tape or didn't see the tape or didn't not see the tape the fact remains that you are now connected to dozens of cases where a woman or child was beaten by one of your employers. not only have i seen you do next to nothing to curb this problem, you have chosen to say next to nothing about the links between head injuries the violence on the field and the violence that

can visit the families of nfl players. yes, the overwhelming number of players do not take part in violence against women and, yes, domestic violence exists in many families where head injuries are not an issue, but the connection is still real and the league has done nothing, zero that i can finding, to educate nfl families on looking for the warning signs. yet you continue to praise your league and really yourself for making domestic violence quote, part of the national conversation, end quote. this is outrageous kind of like praising goldman sachs for making corporate greed part of the national conversation. that's why that's miko grimes the wife of brent grimes basically broke twitter last week with a too profane for tv rant against your league. i'm going to read some of her tweets anyway. ms. grimes said the nfl is the bleepiest, shadiest, disrespect disrespectful sport in the world and as long as i breathe air i will talk bleep about them. you have these campaigns going on about domestic violence and sexual assault when we all know

that you don't gaf about women. i have friends that were beaten, thrown downstairs while pregnant, guys arrested and the nfl suspended them one bleeping game? now y'all care? ray rice clocked his now wife on camera, then all of a sudden no more? get the bleep out of here nfl. i'm not being quiet about this bull bleep no more. miko grimes is right and clear. no one should be quiet about this. if nothing else this last year we have all learned that the continued profitability of the league means that nfl owners will protect and defend you no matter the moral cost. be better than your employers, mr. goodell. show the country that despite all popular opinion to the contrary there is still such a thing as shame in this world. say that the league needs to get serious in how it discusses domestic violence and head injuries, that the league needs to work in partnership with the players association to figure out a new approach rooted in educating current players and caring for those who have

retired. make clear that your resignation is a precondition for making this partnership a reality. and most of all, be honest in your resignation speech that when it comes to issues of violence against women and head injuries, you have been profoundly ignorant. be honest that you're now damning quote when punishing the new orleans saints that ignorance is no excuse should apply to you as well and then go out and find a new job. i would recommend seeking work at the walter reed hospital ward that deals with traumatic brain injuries. if the tragedy of your tenure as commissioner has been ignorance, i garrendamntee that will clear it up pretty quick. sincerely, dave zirin. of cheerios? honey nut. but... chocolate is my other favorite... but apple cinnamon is my favorite too... and fruity... oh yeah, and frosted! okay, but...what's you're most favorite of all?

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you know i tried one of those bargain paper towels but the roll just disappeared. bounty is 2x more absorbent so one roll lasts longer. bounty. the long lasting picker upper we reported yesterday that concussions were down 25% this past regular season.

continuing a three-year trend. >> that was nfl commissioner roger goodell during his annual state of the league address on friday. but it's worth digging into the statistics on concussions a little more. the commissioner noted that concussions were down 25% during this past regular season but toss in practices and preseason games and the decline is a bit less dramatic. 12%. and while any decline in this statistic is welcome news the nfl still reported 202 concussions. no matter what happens with head injuries in the future we must also contend with the past. more than 4500 former players have sued the league some claiming the nfl actively hid the dangers of head injuries. now, even the nfl admits that it expects one in three retired players to develop long-term cognitive problems. and just this week researchers at boston university found that retirees who started playing tackle football before the age of 12 had an increased risk of memory trouble and related problems.

clearly none of this is good news for football players or the league itself. but the implications may reach even further, to the next generation of players. a new nbc/wall street journal poll found that 37% of americans say they would steer their kids away from playing football because they are worried about concussions. we love football and we love our kids. does all this mean that those two loves are in conflict? joining our table, dr. anthony assisi who is a sports neurologist and medical director at the university of connecticut neurosport. i want to start with you, doctor. this new report about 12-year-olds will undoubtedly lead at least some people to look at the small ending study and say, hey, all we need to do is keep the peewees from playing and if they start middle school high school, it will be okay. is that the right conclusion to draw? >> melissa, you have to understand that throughout time mothers were always kind of against their children playing football really. let's face it. but fathers have always won the argument until now.

with this discussion about concussions coming up mothers are starting to win and more and more kids are getting lacrosse sticks and they're playing soccer. >> is lacrosse safer? >> it's not as much immediate contact. when you think of linemen, you know you're going to get hit on every play so there's a big difference in the frequency of concussions. so you're seeing fewer people. as a matter of fact, pop warner said this year they have lost 25% of their participants. so we've now empowered mothers and their argument and fathers are starting to lose the argument. >> so if this is -- it's an interesting case. my husband and i were chatting a little bit about it this morning as we were prepping for the show. now, we have two daughters, but i asked so you know if we were talking about our nephew or if we had a son, would we want him to play. look, the reality is again, i know so many guys who were some of my favorite people in middle school and high school in part

because they were kids who played on the team and because they played on the team for example, they didn't get into drinking in high school. they were like you know special collective sweet, nice kids but i don't know would i want my kid to play? how do i balance that? >> you know melissa, i think what vince wilfork said is like the shirt, it's kind of all in the game yo. you know, to be honest that it's just a part of the game. and we both know that it's a risk that you take but you fall in love with the game. i really think that once you start playing the game of football there's something psychological that really happens. the nfl will always have a market for this -- for players because of poverty. that your marks are right there. that there are people who truly believe that if my son plays a sport that they can take me out of poverty. >> all right. so that -- i have to say that's kind of when i popped up when you said moms don't want their kids to play football because i thought actually in many of the communities that i'm from where i've worked in actually moms do

in part because there is a perception that there may be opportunities at least to get to college. maybe not to the pros but as a track man. so does this mean wealthy kids opt out to lacrosse sticks and poor kids end up with head injuries? >> what do russell wilson and tom brady have in common? they both come from middle class families and stable homes. i think that will be the pipeline that we see sever in the years to come. >> but brady's dad kept him out until he was 14. >> as did archie manning. archie manning did the same thing. so i understand that youth football is not necessarily a ticket to the nfl. >> sure. >> as a matter of fact, many players didn't play youth football. so there has to be another reason to play youth football. that's why i'm not against abolishing youth football but we need to work with information and that's our problem. >> and science is not the league's friend. the more science we learn, the more dangerous the league looks. >> it depends on how you define

science. because a lot of the stuff out there is not true science. let's face it when you think of it, most of the research we've done has been at the nfl and ncaa level. nobody has really looked at high school athletes. certainly no one has looked at youth athletes. the brain is different at that level. and yet when you look at the pyramid, there are 3 million youth football players at grade school. >> we're not doing research on those kids at that time. >> absolutely not, so we don't have enough information. so it's hard for a mother and a father to make any decision without information and we don't have it yet. >> i've got a 2-year-old little boy. i wish i had a dollar for everyone that asks me are you going to let your son play football or not. my answer is emphatically that it will be his decision but the life lessons learned in that game far outweigh the risks. >> let's talk about saying it's going to be his decision. there's all kinds of things we don't let kids make decisions about because we don't think they can adequately address that sort of now cost versus the long term.

heck, there are states where a teenage girl can't even get an abortion without her parents' consent. >> but the landscape is different today. think about the landscape of youth sports today even when i was a kid. you have today -- when i was a kid we played every sport there was to play. baseball, soccer basketball we played football we played everything, right? it was go do it all. now you have a single sport culture amongst 8-year-olds. so you've got kids that are playing baseball 12 months out of the year. >> because they're trying to specialize. >> that's the professionalization of youth sports. they want their kids on that track in a way that i think can be very destructive for many families. not all the life lessons from football are good. it actually depends on how the family processes those lessons and talks to their kids. it can be very ugly. >> people can me this all the time, should i let my child play youth football. as you said melissa, you need to meet the parentcoach. if the coach is a knucklehead,

get them out of there. >> thank you, doctor for your comments and also the rest of my panel for sticking around. coming up, who wants in. bets on everything from the hair toss to katy perry's hair color during the halftime show. just how much money is going into gambling this weekend. that's up next. so much on super bowl sunday in nerdland. katy. a go odime to sell my car. well, we make it pretty easy. in fact, your appraisal should be ready, let's pull it up. now, how long do i have to decide on this offer? seven days, and we'll buy your car even if you don't buy ours. but if i decide to buy a convertible? the offer is exactly the same either way. nice! aaanndd... here it is! we'll take it! terrific. sell your car the fast and easy way, with no strings attached, at carmax. start here. 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.

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hear ye! the awkward teenage one has arrived!!!! don't be old fashioned. xfinity customers add xfinity home for $29.95 a month for 12 months. plus for a limited time, get a free security camera call 1800 xfinity or visit comcast.com/xfinityhome. for millions of americans, wagering on the super bowl is a big part of the big game. more people bet on the super bowl than any event in american sports, putting money on the line from everything from the point spread to who will win the coin toss. this year fans can even bet on what color katy perry's hair will be during her halftime performance. the american gaming association estimates that fans will spend $3.8 billion on a variety of super bowl bets and that doesn't include all those office pools and pretty much all of it is illegal. in fact according to the american gaming association, the illegal market for gambling is

38 times greater than the legal one. still, most people don't consider that during big sporting events like the super bowl gambling is widely considered socially acceptable. many of the people who partake from loyal fans to local officials are in it for fun, bragging rights maybe a few extra bucks. but for the millions of americans who suffer from gambling addiction, super bowl sunday can be a potential minefield. joining me now, intervention specialist brad lamb who's the founder of breath life healing centers which focuses on addiction treatment. talk to me a little bit about how tough a day like this is for people who may be problem gamblers considering how many people will be placing bets. >> well it's all about the thrill of the win, whether or not it's a $5 bet at the grocery store or hair salon, melissa, or if you're betting the house on it. estimates are there are 5% to 10% of people who will go big on a day like this on super bowl

sunday will have a real problem with gambling. so clinicians it's all about that rush it's that dopamine experience that people get when they take money and hope for a big win. >> so talk to me a little bit about why it's a problem. so why it's a problem for people that have a problem. i understand that just like you have alcoholism but dave was saying when you go to a prohibition, sometimes you create more problems. so i guess i'm wondering why is gambling on the super bowl illegal? >> look we know prohibition doesn't work but it's a problem when, going back to your idea of alcohol, your spouse goes to work on thursday comes home on friday. the paycheck is gone and it's past midnight and all the money is gone. so a family knows immediately if there's a financial problem as a result of an alcohol or drug alcohol. the same creeps in with gambling for sure. one of the troubles with

gamblers though who are gambling addicts is they show up at the point where they really need help and they have blown all their money. so sometimes the ability to get somebody treatment is just based on the financial considerations of the family. i can't tell you how many times i've had that call of hey, we've spent all the money, can you help. have you ever known anybody that's lost big and really gotten into financial problems because of this thing that the rest of us consider no big deal. like gambling is not my thing. give me a drink or drug and i have problems with it but gambling is not my thing. >> i had a beloved close family member who had a gambling problem. i guess part of what i'm wondering, though is as a public policy right, we recognize we're in this kind of social culture milieu a lot of people will be betting on everything from what's going to happen on the next play so is there a responsible way to recognize, hey, folks are going to have a couple beers, but some folks near them may be alcoholics. folks are going to be making some bets but there may be

folks near them who have a gambling addiction. what is the socially responsible way to engage here? >> well i'd love to say that we can trust the government to end prohibition, tax it and then spend the money in responsible ways so that people get treatment who have trouble with it but we've seen pot legalization has rolled out and the government the state is not spending money responsibly as they promised to help people who struggle with it. i'm not for prohibition. i think that the prohibition creates even higher stakes for the person who's struggling with gambling addiction. but boy, we sure have trouble when the government tries to spend money responsibly to help people who are dying from it. melissa, i have to tell you, you look super cute. they just turned my feed on here and i just saw your uniform. >> thank you. >> i am tickled by it. >> it's not every day that i can do my show you know in nerdland like basically in pads.

thanks so much for joining us today. i really do appreciate this point. especially your point here about the public policy. i know john mccain has actually been calling for exactly the thing you're talking about, liberalizing the laws taxing it potentially spending it but it does continue to raise additional issues for all of us. brad lamm out in los angeles who finds my outfit adorable. and here in new york i want to say thank you to wade davis, who is heading off at this point but is going to -- is going to be working with me on another big project i can't wait to tell you about soon. also, dave kavetha and chris are coming back in our next hour. once you go football you can't go back. coming up next the league and its 50 million women fans including one woman who cannot who will not forget. there's more nerdland at the top of the hour. ♪ welcome to the most social car we've

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welcome back. i'm melissa harris-perry and it is super bowl sunday. more than 1 million people are expected to watch the game tonight right there in the stadium in phoenix, arizona. there will be as part of this game including more than 50 million women who will be watching. the nfl has realized in recent years how important its female fans are to the game and to their bottom line. and they started actively marketing to women who want more than tiny pink t-shirts with their team logo. but it wasn't so long ago that articles like this could be found in your mainstream men's magazines. "make her a football fan, our four-point plan to get her into the game and put an end to those inane questions once and for all." my favorite part is how to

explain the huddle such as esoteric football phenomenon that can only be explained in words that women can understand. huddle, explain that this is identical to female group trips to the restroom. once there, women decide on the play for that evening, whether it's calling dibs on the guys they find attractive or cup concocting a plan to ditch their dates. whew. for real things are getting a little bit better in that regard. that "men's fitness" article is from a few years ago and a few months ago when "men's health" tried to do a similar thing, the twitter backlash as swift and severe. and wouldn't you know, the original article is now nowhere to be found. people have gotten wise to the fact that women are fans themselves. not the fall widows are dim-witted girl friends or other stereotypes out there. women make up about one-third of the millions of viewers and nearly half of those watching

the super bowl. spending on nfl women's apparel increased more than 75% from 2010 to 2013 partly because the league got wise and started offering a more diverse set of options for their women fans. in fact the nfl owes women viewers a lot. the league's overall viewership has increased only because a record number of women are watching. men have actually fallen off. if the nfl has a future it's probably wearing a pink jersey. and yet this year when you think of the relationship between the nfl and women, it is one woman who comes to mind. janay rice. the mangled management of the incident of violence purpose traited by ray rice against his now wife is the definitive nfl women's moment of the season. the league initially suspended rice for only two games after video surfaced of rice dragging his fiancee's unconscious form out of a hotel elevator.

the punishment was less than other players received for using illegal drugs. it was only after the public saw the full video of the incident including the sickening image of janay hitting the elevator floor after being struck by ray rice that the league was pressured to suspend him indefinitely. when they did take definitive action, they ran afoul as what most folks see of fair labor practices. the league couldn't punish rice for the same transgression twice and a judge didn't buy the nfl's claim that rice had somehow misled commissioner roger goodell about what had happened in that elevator. that goodell could have possibly thought it was anything but rice lashing out in a moment of brutality. rice was reinstated to the nfl in december. he's now a free agent and can be signed. it was a hard year for janay rice. the violence she suffered compounded by the intense media scrutiny of her and her family and the potential loss of her now husband's livelihood. it was a hard year for all women who love football to see

gender-based violence so poorly addressed by the league they generally love and gender-based violence was just one issue that plagued the league to prompt a question to commissioner roger goodell about how tough the year had been on him. >> it has been a tough year. it's been a tough year on me personally. it's been a year of what i would say humility and learning. we obviously as an organization have gone through adversity, but more importantly it's been adversity for me. and that is something where we take that seriously. it's an opportunity for us to get better. it's an opportunity for us -- for our organization to get better. so we've all done a lot of soul searching, starting with yours truly. >> i just can't. joining the table now, dave zirin, sports editor jill

flippawich, kavetha davidson and chris valletta. jill it was a hard year for the commish. he's been soul searching. >> he's been feeling really bad for himself. >> just -- really? >> yeah. it's pretty offensive for him to really center that entire conversation on himself. i think the nfl has a real opportunity here or maybe had a real opportunity to make a difference in the conversation about domestic violence one in four women will experience in her life. it would have been nice for them to look back and do a real reckoning on how they went wrong to realize they will not be the first or the last institution to screw this up. to make some sort of public effort to show how they're actually really going to change going forward and i don't think we saw that here. >> and yet it is worth noting that despite sounding just strikingly like the guy from bp -- actually i want to play him for just a moment.

remember bp where people died on the platform and then i don't know you know the oceans were polluted and people were living with -- remember this moment? >> the massive disruption it's caused to their lives. there's no one who wants this thing over more than i do. i'd like my life back. >> so he wants his life back and the commissioner has had a hard year. so i'm sort of disgusted. but you know what i'm going to do this evening? i'm going to watch the super bowl. >> i think all you really need to know about the nfl's capacity for reform and goodell's impetus from reform you can get from that one press conference. he leads off in a year where we've dealt with domestic violence and sexual assault and pain killers, he leads off talking about the extra point because that's what really matters. he never once explicitly said domestic violence in that press conference. she kept referring to it like these issues and i think it's really hard to see that they're actually taking this seriously. they're going to run this very

powerful domestic violence ad today during the super bowl. while it's nice to see that they're giving public attention to it it also just kind of looks like the nfl is throwing money at the situation. >> i want to pause and listen just because -- in folks haven't heard i want to listen to the psa that you're talking about. let's take a look at it. >> half pepperoni and half mushroom. >> you know that you called 911. >> do you know how long it will be? >> ma'am, is everything okay over there? do you have an emergency or not? >> yes. >> and you're up able to talk because -- >> right, right. >> is there someone in the room with you? just say yes or no. >> yes. >> can you stay on the phone with me? >> no, thank you. >> so i was part of the former player committee that met with commissioner goodell in order to advise him on restructuring the personal conduct policy. i had never met him before in

person. we were not paid for this. it was literally he brought people to say what can we do. when he sat down at the table, i will say he addressed the room in a manner that acknowledged the fact that there's been a major screw-up that occurred and he put it on himself. he also surrounded himself with people and a group that could offer major revisions to the policies. he recognized that it was a failure. and do it in a way that is going to make the most long-term generational impact possible. when we realize that 83 -- there was an 83% increase in call volume to the national coalition for domestic violence hotline after the ray rice video was released, we can acknowledge the fact that the nfl and this issue with ray rice has put the issue of domestic violence front and sglernt center. >> no, no, no. tmz put it front and center. >> here's what i'm saying. the issue of domestic violence is a major hot button in the nfl, like it or not. and the nfl is in a power position to take lead on social

change. >> i agree with that entirely but it's not roger goodell. he's not going to be the person to do it. he's not going to lead people out of the wilderness that he brought people into. what i was noticing during his press conference was frank luntz, the republican spin meister who told us we should call global warming sunshine time. the one time he broke from script was to show nasty shade at rachel nichols, the woman in the audience an amazing reporter, who asked him about the conflict of interest in these cases. that's when the mask slipped a little bit. he's up there talking about integrity and all that he has learned but when you get to the end of the day, it's about is the register moving and everything is a reactive pr race. >> given that so we reported earlier in the show about how many billions have come in. that if you're a business and looking at the bottom line yeah, there's been a lot of scandal, there's been a lot of

problems, but the bottom line this guy is doing the job you brought him to do. he's made it more profitable and more money coming into the nfl. so when he's asked, do you think you should resign? he's like no. >> and that's what it comes down to. i think we need to remember going back to the ray rice thing it was when sponsors started to speak out about this that the league actually felt the need to address this in some somewhat meaningful way. i think that that's really important when you talk about female fans and female dollars. >> so it's tmz and sponsors as opposed to women fans or the nfl actually doing it. >> he's a 19th century commissioner in a 21st century world. he does not realize that we are now an open media and that people are going to be talking about these things and circulating videotapes and you can't do this authoritarian spine meister approach to running business. >> so i'm wondering if i go back to wade davis saying we have to change the model of how we respond to these questions, i keep thinking about the october pink wash that happens in the nfl and the kind of breast

cancer narrative and we care about women and whether or not that starts ringing hollow to women fans in the context now of what we see. >> yeah i think that there's obviously something to be said for awareness raising campaigns but they have inherent limits limitations and i feel like the domestic violence ad, it's nice to raise awareness. aware ngsness is a very important first step but we're aware of domestic violence we know it happens. so what is the nfl going to do next? where are they investing resources? what are they doing about all the other sexist ads that create this culture of misogyny around professional sports. how are they paying their cheerleaders? >> i'm going to stop you right there because we have an answer to the question that you just put how are they paying their cheerleaders. in fact, we are going to talk about that when we come back. the cheerleaders they share the field performing alongside the pro football players and yet, according to a lawsuit, some are paid less than minimum wage. also still to come why prod

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for anyone who's never been to an nfl game live for those of you who only watch it on tv know this all that time during the time-outs, the commercial breaks the debates over a call on the field, there isn't much to watch on the field. but just off to the side is one of the most fun and entertaining parts of it all, the cheerleaders. the nfl cheerleaders make the atmosphere what it is. they rev up the crowd, they look pretty on camera and actually they work pretty damn hard. and yet many cheerleaders who are paid by their respective teams, not the league say they are paid close to nothing.

the oakland raiders quietly started paying their cheerleaders minimum wage this season for the first time ever. that's $9 an hour. minimum wage in california. and that's a raise. a 156% raise. because before this change cheerleaders who have sued the team say they were paid just $125 per game for ten games, paid in a lump sum at the ending of the season. that's it. they claim they were not paid for any of the myriad other duties of the job, including practicing appearing at a required ten charity events a year and posing for the team's swimsuit calendar. the cheerleaders say they were in effect paid less than $5 an hour. and in september, the raiders agreed to settle a class action lawsuit brought by its cheerleaders and will dole out about $1.25 million in back pay. but some of the radariderettes rejected that settlement and are pursuing their own lawsuits.

one of them joins us today, caitlin and her attorney drexel bradshaw. so nice to have you both. >> thanks for having us. >> you are not only suing -- >> my lawsuit includes the entire nfl because there's cheerleaders on close to 32 teams and we all need to be paid according to the law and treated with respect. and i want to make sure that i'm not just helping my own teammates but all girls across the nfl. >> let me just pause for a moment. i have much more to talk about with you but i do want since you are suing the nfl itself let me just show you this statement by the nfl. i'll read it here so that we can see it. the clubs determine if they want to have cheerleaders and their role. the league has no role in their selection, duties hours or wages. so the nfl is saying this is a team matter this isn't our

issue. >> right. they are. but it is. i mean i believe in their constitution they say something of that nature. >> the question whether the nfl is a joint employer with the teams is a legal question and i think the evidence pointing most directly to that is on the face of the nfl constitution where it directs what cheerleaders can and can't do off the field. we haven't even begun to begin the process of learning all of the internal membetween the nfl and its member teams, much more than the conduct that happens on and off the field. >> i think that's fascinating. let me ask you, caitlin. what is it that you are being told as a raiderette about what you can do, can't do. this idea that it's not just when you're in your uniform. help us to understand that. >> so being a cheerleader you have to keep up your appearance

you have to stay in shape, you have to keep up your dance skills. we are role models in our community so there's a lot that they expect of us. >> hold on for me just one second. jill, i want to come out to you because this has hit the california state legislature at this point. a california state lawmaker seeking to grant some basic labor protection saying look these are people who are working. talk to me. why don't we see cheerleaders as -- look i was a high school cheerleader, i take this very personally. why don't we see them as workers, as laborers as people who are part of the game. >> i think we see them as acute meants to the players. we don't look at them as athletes. when you watch what they do on the field, they are incredibly impressive athletes. they dedicate an enormous amount of time. they're also expected to behave a certain way off the field like the players themselves so they really do have this year-long set of expectations but then they're getting paid pennies. i think there was this perception that they should feel

lucky that they are the pretty girls and the cool girls and they're cheering for the boys. and, you know that should be some sort of exalted status and that should be enough payment. it's not. i'm glad to see this is finally becoming a labor issue. >> i also wonder if part of it is many other sports it keeps showing up in the ncaa too. there's a men's and female version. you can play men's soccer or women's soccer. we can have arguments about whether they are equally resourced but at least the sports exist so we can talk about but there isn't a women's football alternative. so the only role for us if we're not allowed to be the athlete is to be the athletic supporters. and so i'm wondering if part of it is we just don't see an equality there. >> i think that's true. i think the purpose of cheerleading and also ice girls in the nhl, it's another issue where we've had some lawsuits about their treatment and their compensation. it kind of just reinforces that these sports are by men and for men and women only exist as the

accessories of the even the female reporters only really exist on the sidelines. the women executives only exist in ancillary roles so i think that's a really big part of this. >> caitlin, let me come back to you and just ask, so in the end what is a win for you? what kind of change are you hoping to effect with this continued suit? >> i hope that we see leaguewide change across the entire nfl and all nfl cheerleaders are paid according to the law and treated fairly. >> thank you to caitlin y. and to drexel bradshaw in san francisco. there is still more to come this morning. the mvp of super bowl press conferences and trash talk. naerd nerdland style. ♪ there's confidence. then there's trusting your vehicle maintenance

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i host this show you know. they call it melissa harris-perry. my name is melissa harris-perry so i'm here all right. i mean i'm here so i won't get fined, okay? i'm just -- i'm here so i won't get fined. i'm here so i won't get fined. and one more thing, i'm not eric holder. no senator, i am not eric holder. still to come this morning, the value of message repetition as learned this week from both marshawn lynch and loretta lynch. but up next a little game we like to call hometown trash talk with two very special players. >> ari melber.

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everywhere we sail... ... all around the world. call your travel consultant, or 1-800-princess. princess cruises. come back new. so there was this time when steve kornacki was on his show "up" and he was gloating about his new england patriots beating my beloved new orleans saints. so i ran on the set and i choked him a little. i mean not too hard. yeah that happened. well, this year i have to admit it steve's team made it and mine didn't. so i sat down with my colleague to talk a little sports. >> since 2001 ending of the 2014 season the patriots have missed the playoffs once. excuse me twice. this is the sixth super bowl that they're going to in that span. they have won three super bowls. i don't think anybody else can match that kind of just consistent dominance. >> do you think as dynasty as

you are that you guys are ready for seattle? >> i think -- i'm not sure seattle is ready for new england. >> we have another colleague from seattle. you would trash talk to that colleague? >> that's not trash talk. this is truth talk. do you want to know the difference between boston and seattle? >> i do. >> boston we got "cheers." seattle, they got the spin-off. >> i think i'm going to go talk to our colleague about this right now. >> i'd like you to do that. >> ari melber. >> nice to see you. >> nice to see you. i was just having a little conversation with our friend and colleague, steve kornacki. he said to me that this tells you everything you need to know about the super bowl. boston had "cheers." seattle had spin-off.

>> first of all, "frazier" was a great show. if anything it was more gentle than cheers. >> so what do you think of boston as a city though? >> i would say boston is the nicest horse and carriage you've ever seen. but it's still a horse and carriage. and seattle is a fast eco-friendly sports car. >> i'm going to ask corekornacki about that. nice shoes. >> i had a little chat with ari melber about your spin-off point and he says well basically boston is a spin-off of europe. it's old, it's musty, it's basically, he said like a really nice horse and carriage. >> well first of all, by old i think you mean historic. if you want to know where this country started, where it got

its start, where all these things we learn about in school come from you go to boston. if you go to seattle, you get really pretentious coffee, a useless landmark called the space needle. oh this is going to get tourists. they're all going to come see this big building and it's the 58th biggest building on the west coast so nobody ever goes to that. what do you get? you get rain. tell him this i don't even want to talk to him until he apologizes to all of america for grunge. >> there's basically no part of your city that kornacki did not just come for. >> is that his thing, to come with the really original stuff, the seattle rain joke? that is tough. that is just -- gets me right there with rain. >> and then the final thing was he said he doesn't even really want to talk to you ever again until you apologize to the whole country for grunge. >> that's fair. >> it's implied in the current news cycle that it may also be

true that seattle has bigger and firmer balls. than boston. have you found that to be true in your experience ari? >> this is what i will say about football. the patriots got caught cheating before the super bowl. seattle didn't. >> ari there, of course is referring to spygate, the investigation into the underinflated balls is still under way. my thanks to ari and steve for participating in that little bit of very nerdlicious fun. up next nearly naked ladies and dads who shop. how much money do you have in your pocket right now? i have $40 $21. could something that small make an impact on something as big as your retirement? i don't think so. well if you start putting that towards your retirement every week

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for the gridiron action the commercials and of course the halftime show. after weeks of rehearsal katy perry will perform sharing the stage with lenny kravitz and another star reported to be a surprise guest. joining me now from glendale, arizona, nbc's craig melvin. craig, what's the latest scoop on tonight's performances? >> reporter: here's the thing. the surprise perhaps has been ruined a bit because it was revealed yesterday or the day before missy elliott, the grammy award-winning hip-hop star rapper will be joining katy perry as well as lenny kravitz for what has become the biggest 12 1/2 minute performance every year for the entertainer lucky enough to get chosen. here's the thing, here's what folks don't realize about the halftime show at the super bowl. it hasn't always been this blockbuster spectacular that we've grown accustomed to. >> i remember when it was bad. >> yes! marching bands and like seedless performers and thengdsings like that. in 1993 when michael jackson

brought the house down that changed the game. since then we've seen prince beyonce, last year bruno mars and the record sales for these artists who perform at halftime historically skyrocket right after the performance. for instance bruno mars last year up 90% in the days after he performed. beyonce was up as well 60%. so in the past you know the nfl used to pay these folks to show up. used to pay them big money. now it's not the case. the nfl pays for -- or the advertiser, in this case pepsi will pay for the production costs, but the artist gets the free pub and they like to think that makes it more than worth it. >> oh, so they work like the cheerleaders, just not for a lot of pay. nbc's craig melvin in glendale arizona. let's hope that fog burns off soon so you guys can have a good night out there. >> it's supposed to burn off around noon. >> good. very good. richard sherman may end of having a very very big night tonight, and i'm not just

predicting a seattle seahawk championship. richard sherman is also due to become a daddy any day now. now, his coach has given him the okay to skip the super bowl in favor of the delivery room. >> if he's faced with that decision, we'll support him and we'll see how that goes. wish him luck and i can't wait to see little petey. >> and sherman hasn't said which he would choose. >> i think he's going to be a disciplined young man and stay in there until after the game. >> so media and social media have been offering a lot of opinions about what is the right thing to do. but sherman is not the only father getting attention this super bowl sunday. advertisers are celebrating dads in a big way in a trend that's being dubbed dadverdtising. that's a thing now. honestly it's kind of heart-warming. >> daddy! >> daddy!

>> dad! >> i hate the when the commercials make me cry. of course advertisers can't completely abandoning the adage that sex sells. look at this carl's jr. spot that already has people talking. >> nothing between me and my 100% all natural, juicy, grass-fed beef. >> introducing the all natural burger. the first ever in fast food with no antibiotics, no added hormones and no steroids. >> all right. so that one made me cry too, but for a different reason. look on the one hand diversifying reached a larger group of men. i assume there are some dads who appreciate being portrayed as hands-on loving parents and not just sex-craved consumers. but 75% of women say they are the primary shoppers for their

households and we know that the super bowl audience is pretty equally divided between men and women. so ultimaty is dadvertising the newest way of marketing to women? i watch the dad commercial with my husband this morning when i was prepping. he was not so moved by that ad but i was like oh i wanted to go buy dove products right? and i wonder if the dadvertising is momvertising still trying to get women to purchase the products. >> i think that's certainly a part of it. i just watched that ad too and was like ohhh. but i do think it reflects changing family dynamics in the u.s. that dads do spend more time with their children than they ever have before since we actually started studying these things. that's very real. so i think advertisers are probably latching on to two different but overlapping trends. one of which is this change in what dads do in the home and the second is the fact that women do still sort of dominate when it comes to family consumer spending. >> i wonder if we could get the

two dad. i'd like to see advertisers go out on a limb for what modern families look like which is increasingly not just a dynamic of one man, one woman and their bio kids but far more diverse. >> and all these adds are pro found ly heteronormative. as far as the carl's jr. thing, first of all, if you're bragging that your hamburger doesn't have steroids there are bigger problems in this country than that. and super bowl and sexism goes together like bill belichick and skirting the rules. it's what happens as part of the package of super bowl sunday. and my experience of it is that when i'm at a super bowl party, progressive-minded men and the women, they roll their eyes and that's when they find time for the bathroom break. so if the nfl is actually serious about having a broader audience, a more diverse audience, they need to mind their ads a little more. >> do they really? what the progressives do at my super bowl party is they hate

watching, right? so they're like oh my gosh what is -- now what is going to happen? what is going happen now? but they're certainly watching it. >> they're absolutely watching it and that's the point but i think what you see in both of these points is when are we going to have paula abdul doing the halftime show because it's one step forward, two steps back. >> we come together because opposites attract. >> you see in this dad ad an actual attempt to combat in hypermasculinity that has plagued the league and contributing to all of its problems with domestic violence and you see that completely thrown out the window with the ad like carl's jr. and the way cheerleaders are treated and the way that women on the sideline and reporters are treated and the fact that we're really just hood ornaments when it comes to the games. >> recent reports have shown depending on what your goals and objectives are with these ads that some advertisers are pulling out because you're either going after your brand or you're going after results. if you want actual sales out of a super bowl ad pull out because it doesn't work.

>> so this -- one of the reasons i really wanted you at the table was to talk about this godaddy ad. they have been criticized because of their sexism but this new ad that got yanked was making people angry because of what seemed to be an animal cruelty narrative. here's this poor little dog, it makes its way all the way home. it seems like it's going to be a heart-warming moment but when the doggy gets home it turns out that they're just going to sell the dog, right? people were livid. they yanked it. do you know why i know this whole story because i've seen it 40,000 times on all the morning shows. i'm thinking godaddy just won because they didn't have to pay, right? they got all this free -- we're doing it for free right now. >> i mean if that was their objective, clearly it was a brilliant move. i actually did see that ad when i saw the little dog i kind of caught it out of the side of my eye. when i saw the dog running down the side of the highway and a car go flying past i was like oh, my gosh this isn't effective, it didn't work for

me. clearly it is a big, massive business and it's either in the business of building a brand or building a response. >> and haven't we learned that america loves dogs hates people? hasn't that lesson been pounded home a lot? >> a little bit, yeah. like a little bit. and given that the godaddy had been in some other, oh what's the right words for it real serious problems around animal cruelty issues you had to believe that they knew this that it was actually the pulling of it that was the thing that was planned. >> godaddy in the past several years has released a series of incredibly sexist ads so it's striking that we have ads that treat women like objects for add advertising internet access which you think would be a gender and neutral thing. those sexist ads get some outrage but godaddy isn't pulling them but as soon as it's

a dog, then we care. >> i do love the like a girl that is also going to happen tonight. that's the sort of fun counter is this idea that because there's an expectation of going together, you know sort of sexism and super bowl going together, if you do the like a girl piece, that also gets attention because here is this idea of you know young girls empowered, running like a girl throwing like a girl like being empowered. >> right. but i think it's still kind of notable that despite the fact that female fans are on the uptick and the fact that we've agreed that women do make the purchasing decisions and are active, we need to be activating those dollars, the predominant line in most of these commercials is still courting men. we are still talking about football in the context of male fans and largely ignoring women and their money. >> we've got a little bit more on our football sunday. up next we're going to play a little game so get ready. and you can join my panel in guessing which lynch is which after the break.

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okay. this week the united states senate and the american sports media had a lot in common. really, they did. let's start on capitol hill where members of the senate confirmation committee finally got their opportunity to put the tough questions to a lawyer named lynch. loretta lynch. the president's nominee for attorney general. then we can pop on over to arizona, where members of the american sports media finally got their opportunity to put the tough questions to a player named lynch, marshawn lynch, the running back of the seattle seahawks. both q&a sessions ended up being quite memorable and allows us to stage our very own competition right here in nerdland. which lynch is which? now, all of my guests have a paddle. on one side there is a photo of

attorney general nominee loretta lynch. on the other side a photo of seahawks running back marshawn lynch. here's what i'm going to do. i'm going to ask a question and my panel is going to hold up their answer and it's going to be a little harder than you might think at home. after all, both loretta and marshawn have been invited to the white house because of their success on the job and both have been commended for work in their fields. i have faith in our panel they can figure out which lynch is limplg which. at some point, one of our lynches said this. i don't know what story you're trying to get or what image you want to portray me as. was that loretta or marshawn? >> got to be about that action boss. >> right? we're going with marshawn. anybody else? that was a marshawn? >> i'm going loretta. >> i am too. marshawn doesn't like to say anything flippant. >> we got a split decision.

the answer actually was marshawn. let's listen. >> i don't know what story y'all trying to get out of me. i don't know what image y'all trying to portray of me. but it don't matter what y'all think, what y'all say about me. >> it would have been gangster if loretta lynch had said it though. i would have loved to have her -- and you did, moments, kind of feel that with her in the senate. here's the second one. one of our lynches faced questioning about what we're going to call a teammate. a teammate who's got into trouble for being a little outspoken in recent years. was that marshawn lynch or loretta lynch who faced tough questioning on that? >> that was loretta lynch. >> oh accident, okay. i get it. i can totally get why you think it would be marshawn. >> between all the people

speaking out about important issues. >> right. last year it was all about richard sherman saying way too many words, right? >> and this year michael bennett was very very forthcoming about talking about the ncaa and all of the problems that go into college sports and richard sherman has been as well and has been very outspoken about marshawn lynch's right to not speak, actually. >> but that said i just want to say, it actually was -- you guys were right. it was loretta lynch. let's just quickly take a listen to her talking about her teammate. >> the attorney general refers to himself as the president's wing man, suggesting that he is not -- does not exercise independent legal judgment as the chief law enforcement officer for the country. you wouldn't consider yourself to be a political arm of the white house as attorney general, would you? >> no senator, that would be a totally inappropriate view of the position of attorney general. >> so i loved it right? it did feel like at certain ways -- you know we heard in the kind of land of football,

are they talking about the wrong things? but here we were in the land of american politics, you know, are you blocking for your team here basically. >> absolutely. and she got high feet as marshawn might say. so there you go. >> all right. one of the lynches used repetition as a way of kind of keeping the questioners from getting what they wanted out of the press conference. which lynch was that? >> this is a pretty easy one. >> i'm going both. >> that's true right? >> i'm going both. >> actually i think that we can go both. let's listen first to marshawn lynch doing his repetition. >> so y'all can sit here and ask me all the questions y'all want to. i'm going to answer with the same answer. so y'all can shoot if y'all please. >> what's the answer? >> i'm here so i won't get fined. i'm here so i won't get fined.

>> [ inaudible question ]. >> i'm here so i won't get fined. >> it was classic. what did you guys think ultimately? >> i mean look he signed a contract, okay. contractually, he's obligated to be in front of the media and speak to the media. i understand through some friends and the like that marshawn lynch has an issue speaking with the media. he doesn't like it he's not good at it he's uncomfortable. i get that. he should have voiced that opinion when he was signing the contract. he could have potentially negotiated that. that's number one. number two, i truly believe that the skills of presenting yourself well and actually representing yourself and speaking in public and communicating are actually highly transferable to the rest of the world and the rest of your life. the nfl could actually help him media train, give him some skills so he can learn how to do it. but that was a mockery. >> and yet it was ultimately a

classic. i think we could say both because loretta lynch did keep repeatedly telling people i am not eric holder. thank you, everyone. that is our show for today. thanks to you at home for watching. i'm going to see you next saturday 10:00 a.m. eastern. don't forget you can watch the super bowl showdown between the seattle seahawks and the new england patriots tonight on nbc at 6:30 p.m. eastern. right now, time for a preview of "weekends with alex witt." >> how could we forget? only unless you've been living under a rock. anyway, a dangerous snowstorm is hitting the midwest, moving east at a time when people are going to be on the roads. what happened to whitney houston's daughter? the latest as she remains in a georgia hospital. plus, what could be the most alarming commercial you're going to see during the super bowl tonight. don't go anywhere. i'll be back. in life, it's how you get there that matters most. like when i found out i had a blood clot in my leg. my doctor said that it could travel to my lungs and become an even bigger problem.

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headed to the northeast after it sweeps through the midwest. we're going to tell you where, when, and how much will hit. >> go pats go go, go! >> countdown to the big game. everything you need to know before you settle in to watch super bowl xlix with more than 110 million other americans. 2016 scramble a wide-open field of candidates for the gop in the early run for the white house, but a new poll today may give