>> phil: they were waiting for a short one. >> jim: for those of you expecting to see "60 minutes", you're watching the nfl on cbs. jim nantz and phil simms. new england leads it 34-23. "60 minutes" will be seen after this game, except on the west coast. >> phil: and in you're in this stadium, you're the crowd, you need to get it started. >> jim: ridley on the toss for 4. >> phil: jim, let's go back. here's demaryius thomas. decker makes the safety stay inside. it allows tim tebow to throw it deep down the field on the sidelines.

excellent throw by tim tebow. gave them a chance to score that touchdown and get the crowd back in the game. >> jim: and dumervil's hit on brady also got the crowd stirred. and gronkowski to the 30 yard line. >> phil: you start the game. you talk about communication. it's a blitz by the denver defense. nobody is covering gronkowski. a couple times we've seen that today. >> jim: and champ bailey frustrated with that one. he was one of the defenders. and gronkowski got away from him and others. picked up 38. >> phil: pretty nimble for a big, tall -- about 6'5", 6'6." he can surprise everybody. >> jim: he's nimble and you can't bring him down. ridley met harris. making the tackle.

>> phil: more importantly, the clock. denver needs two possessions. >> jim: seven minutes to go. they're not huddling here. >> phil: this makes it easy on them. he has his eye on the play clock. he's going to let it get down there. snap it around five seconds. >> jim: brady hit his last seven passes. make it eight. fernandez to the sidelines. back out-of-bounds at the 19. >> phil: i will admit, jim, when you watch this patriot's offense, fernandez to the right, how about that stutter move? that's what is so tough. you have d.j. williams, he has no chance of running with aaron hernandez. most backs couldn't cover him in a situation like that. >> jim: fernandez with over 100

on the game. a career high in yardage. woodhead. he scoots for six or maybe seven. aaron hernandez has had quite a game. >> phil: he has. focus on gronkowski. who will cover aaron hernandez. saw the shifting that the patriots, the best in the nfl. they have so many guys that do those shake routes, double moves inside. tom brady, excellent short ball thrower, too. >> jim: on second and 4. brady. pump fake. rolling with it. fernandez, the safety valve at the 7. >> holding. offense. number 62. ten-yard penalty. still second down. >> jim: brian wendell flagged for that one. >> phil: number 62 right in the

middle of the field. >> jim: yeah. had aheld of that jersey. >> phil: john fox, pretty sa sarcastic there. how about that? >> jim: yeah. he's been feuding all day with these calls. second down and 14. hernandez again. wide open. middle of the field. inside the 10, 5. down to the 1. >> phil: unbelievable. in this situation, a little chaotic in denver. just making another mistake. again, nobody on the coverage. so they send him underneath. the move that he gets by here at the end, no chance. open-field tackling. dennis allen, the defensive coordinator for the broncos says that's the toughest thing about this game.

we're going to catch it but can we tackle him in time. >> jim: and hernandez already has the yardage career mark. brady not going anywhere with that one. a flag. >> phil: . >> 12 men on defense. half the distance to the goal. >> phil: every time, jim, i say something about the patriots, leaving too much time on the clock. they snapped at 3, 6, 9, 12. the officials saw it and threw the flag there. >> jim: dennis allen, the defensive coordinator. >> phil: the patriots going with the screen. they're trying to win the game. they're not trying to preserve the lead. >> jim: and goal to go.

brady again. no gain. >> phil: i'd take a time-out here if i was john fox. >> jim: there's the time-out called by the broncos. right on cue. 4:24 to play, brady and the patriots driving down the field again. a yard out. this was the gulf's best tourism season in years. all because so many people wanted to visit us... in louisiana. they came to see us in florida... nice try, they came to hang out with us in alabama... once folks heard mississippi had the welcome sign out, they couldn't wait to get here. this year was great but next year's gonna be even better. and anyone who knows the gulf knows that winter is primetime fun time.

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the captioning on this program is provided as an independent service of captionmax, which is solely responsible for the accurate and complete transcription of program content. cbs, its parent and affiliated companies, and their respective agents and divisions, are not responsible for the accuracy, or completeness of any transcription, or for any errors in transcription. >> jim: coming out of the denver time-out. first of the half. the patriots have had the ball over four minutes. trying to put away the broncos right here. >> phil: denver is going to play run all the way. >> jim: brady, straight ahead. somebody at the bottom of the

pile. there was some concern. >> time-out denver, their second. a 30-second time-out. >> jim: tom brady on the sneak. pretty close. >> phil: yeah. my first thought when we saw it live, i thought he got underneath there and scored. but the officials, nobody can see the football. >> jim: it is in fact number 77 getting medical attention. back to new york for an update. >> and it's tight in oakland. >> matthew stafford, his third touchdown. oakland holding on, 27-21. detroit has the ball.

they're trying to maybe tie first place with denver. >> 1:33 left in regulation. jim nantz, phil simms. >> jim: the broncos do own the tiebreaker over the raiders. but matthew stafford trying to drive the lions down the field. just outside of a minute to go in that one. stafford has thrown for three touchdowns today. you can see bunkley walking to the sidelines. >> phil: and i think tom brady sneaks it again. if you run it, you think they have to go outside because this defense, they're playing for the inside run. >> jim: going to hand it off. they have the touchdown to green-ellis. >> phil: that's where you go. go off tackle. tom brady, i'll tell you,

just -- little things that go unnoticed. he quick snaps them. look at the blocks. how about that? on the left side. mankins again. i've said his name a lot today. seals it. all the little things that this offense does. how important they are in today's game because it's so hard to get that extra yard for the first down to fourth down. >> jim: it's 41-23 off of the gostkowski extra point. robert kraft heading to the locker room to greet the team. mr. kraft the head of the nfl broadcasting committee. the new deal inked this week with cbs and fox and nbc. we're so happy to see a nine-year extension.

>> phil: we are. pat bolan is part of that committee, too. >> jim: the fine owner of the broken coast. there with his chief operating officer, joelle list, at his side. those two instrumental in getting that agreement. we have the labor deal, the tv deal. >> phil: we can talk about football for quite a while. that's pretty neat, huh? and new england's offense, how good have they been today? under pressure. that drive, those are tough drives when you're trying to stop the momentum of the other team. the good drives start with a pitch outside. got five yards. really the blown coverages again by the denver broncos, jim. >> jim: a nine-play, 80-yard drive. and the fifth touchdown maker of the day on the new england side. >> phil: the broncos 7-1 in the last 8 games. the other teams made the mistakes. today they did.

penalties, fumbles. >> jim: matthew willis has come in nor cosby who mishandled the one before the half. mishandled the last kickoff he touched in the second half. he won't get a chance to do anything with it. some of the early headlines and there were some big ones. kansas city, jackie battle scoring the touchdown. from the university of houston. aaron rodgers scratching his head. they suffered the first loss. colts get their first win of the year. a big blow to the titan's postseason hopes. and the redskins roll over the giants. what happened with the new york teams today? the giants flat against washington and if jets getting mauled by philadelphia. they'll meet next week, the jets and giants.

there's a pass play. out to willis for 15. seeing all those luminaries a minute ago. commissioner goodell was also at the game. >> phil: we got a chance to see him after half time. >> jim: underneath. and that's for about eight. with a flag down. >> before the pass, holding. defense. number 75. >> jim: tonight on cbs, we begin with "60 minutes" with meryl streep and followed by "survivor" around the live reunion show tonight on cbs. >> phil: well, a cowl things we found out today are one, new

england's offense. i thought they were facing a hot defense. one that could give them problems. definitely wrong there. >> jim: tebow in trouble. spins out of it. taking off inside the 40. all the way to the new england 29. a 30-yard run. >> phil: it's a great spin-out. this is what he's good at. he sees it all the way. i've seen him do it five times this year. out of the corner of his eye, he's watching the rush. able to spin out. >> jim: looking for an open target. throws it away. the patriots learned. warren was about to meet i'm with him. next week, regional action on christmas eve day. denver at buffalo to most of the nation. be up there for that one. the broncos and the bills.

other regional action including san diego and detroit for some of you late. all getting started with "the nfl today." all getting started next saturday. >> phil: next saturday. even though denver will lose this game, i think tim tebow has answered a lot of questions. given the opportunity, throwing the football very well. >> jim: the patriots register a sack back at the 39. mayo and warren combine. >> phil: yeah. watch the patriots defense this time. five guys. perfect unity. nobody -- four guys not getting behind the quarterback. you're in front of him. there's no where for him to run. >> jim: a loss of 7. 2 1/2 to play. trying to run it. downfield and incomplete. over the head of eddie royal.

what about the lions and the raiders? j.b.? take it away. >> a 98-yard drive by the lions. >> 14 unanswered. the detroit lions, matthew stafford, touch down passes. this to calvin johnson. they take the lead with 39 seconds to go. >> big day by stafford and megatron. back to jim and phil. >> jim: wow. 98 yards they drive at the end of the game. and the raiders have about a half a minute to play there. time-out called by new england. while the broncos, we told you, will be at buffalo next week. and then they'll come back home on new year's day and host kansas city. the chiefs, by the way, are not mathematically eliminated from the postseason.

so a look at the afc playoff picture. baltimore against san diego, a team that has won two straight. pittsburgh at 10-3. we'll watch that game with great interest as we await to see what ben roethlisberger is capable of doing. and a fourth down play coming up. gets away from ninkovich. this is going to be a master sack. it's going to be like lilly and

grease in super bowl v. i believe that was 29 yards. what do we got? 29 yards. >> phil: good memory, good spacing. tim tebow spins, but the defense is ready this time. >> jim: how about moore? chasing him all the way down the field. ninkovich coming back and getting the sack. and green-ellis. excellent coverage. there's a flag down. and i pulled the grease thing. you remember the play though.

>> phil: yes, i do. >> jim: ever happen to you? >> phil: lose that -- >> jim: did you ever backtrack that far? >> phil: i couldn't run fast enough to lose 29 yards. >> jim: so as we approach the two-minute warning, you said tebow showed you a lot? >> he answered a lot of questions to a lot of people. even our pregame show was talking about it before the game. can he throw it well enough to keep leading this team, for them to be a little more wide open when they get in games like this. i think he proved a big point, yeah. given the opportunity, he can throw long. >> jim: that will bring us to the two-minute warning. new england needed a win or a jets loss. they're going to get both. they're going to be the afc east champions. beauty, huh? it's dependable.

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suitcase? anniversary trip. hearts? it's called the red hot love bead... ♪ oh. ...i've said too much. [ female announcer ] celebrate life's unforgettable moments with a fabulous selection of pandora charms and bracelets at jared. telling her life's story with just a turn of the wrist. soccer ball? soccer mom. [ female announcer ] that's why he went to jared, the galleria of jewelry. >> jim: final two minutes here in denver. patriots going to win the division for the ninth time in 11 years. ridley takes us down to about the 35 yard line.

it's been an interesting year for the patriots in this regard. with all the packers were downing and of course the tebow story here the last 1 1/2 months, is it possible to say this team will go to 11-3? it's been a little under the radar. they keep cranking out these years and people come to expect it. >> that's right. it's not a new story. we want to follow the other story to that. of course, the green bay packers. defending super bowl champions. aaron rodgers playing great. and the other big story, tim tebow and what they have done out here in denver. >> jim: you know, jim, just the fact that they lost this way today, you know, kind of like when we saw the denver broncos play early in the year. hard to judge a lot of things. we saw them lose to the green bay packers. well, how many offenses out there can go up and down the field and score like this new england patriots time has done

today? not many. >> jim: and ridley down to the 27. let's send it back to james brown one more time. >> a 65-yard attempt by sebastian janikowski. >> gets through. blocks it. last play and the detroit lions, 28-27. nine wins and oakland raiders fail to take advantage of an opportunity. >> jim: so suh makes the big play. you know janikowski had the leg to do it. we were speculating stafford. ridley into traffic. gets back a yard. remember, if the broncos win the last two games, they can win the division. they have buffalo, home at kansas city. if new england finishes 13-3 and

baltimore wins out at 13-3, baltimore by virtual of several tiebreakers down the line would be the number 1 seed. based on opponents. goes way down the line. they both were 13-3. they would be number 1, new england would be number 2. >> phil: well, you know, like you said, so many things still to be decided. i guess the pittsburgh steelers sitting back, watching the baltimore ravens. see if they still have hope of winning their division. >> jim: tebow and bell check go back to tebow's first year at florida. a lot of respect for the coach for this kid. he said you can never throw too much at him. he can go through breaking down film and everything else. a lot of people thought maybe

new england might be the team that would draft him. but josh mcdaniels took him two picks ahead of the patriots. >> phil: i don't think the patriots would have taken him. they have tom brady. you're going to draft in the first round with tom brady your quarterback? >> jim: a lot of people thought he might slip to the second or third round. pass incomplete. belichick with ties to denver. he was an assistant here back in 1978. special teams assistant. on the defensive side for joe collier. that's back in the orange crush days. he knew what it like when this city gets ramped up. it's one of the greatest football cities in america. >> phil: no doubt about it. the patriots have great respect for the football team they're playing against today.

you said it, if bill belichick says you come on the field, it's special, the crowd, everything about it. they were worried. they had some tough moments with their defense today. that's for sure. >> jim: now out-of-bounds after a gain of five. if the broncos win the last two games to win the division, they would be in all likelihood hosting a game you would think against either pittsburgh or baltimore. it's going to be -- >> phil: that's what it sounds like. >> jim: a four-way matchup. the second place finisher in the afc north will be the five. things wide open for the six. tebow throws it over the head of willis. and that will be back to the patriots for a kneel-down and a

game-ender. >> phil: and seeing the raiders lose, that helps the denver broncos. they held the tiebreakers against the san diego chargers. like i said, i think it's a pretty good football team. if they make it to the playoffs, it's -- you know, the offense is different. they could be a tough out once the playoffs start. >> jim: there's belichick. knowing he has the division in hand. >> phil: like i said, only a couple offenses that could exploit this denver defense. >> jim: and tom brady has not had the best experiences here in denver. his first career postseason loss in fact was here against the broncos in his first four-pick game was. he got a victory today. like to welcome some audience just coming in here for the final seconds. tebow and the broncos 80

energized early today. they were. the running game was spectacular in the first quarter. they looked in the first quarter like what they had been doning in the fourth quarter in recent weeks. >> phil: gotta give the patriots a lot of credit. their defense adjusted and stopped the big run. tebow meeting tom brady for the first time. >> jim: the first time those two ever met. final score is new england 41, denver 23. patriots outscored the broncos 34-37 the final 39 minutes. coming up, "60 minutes" followed by the season finale of "survivor." you've been watching the nfl on cbs. it's a bit like asking if they want a big hat... ...'scuse me... ...or a big steak... ...or big hair...

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captioning funded by cbs and ford-- built for the road ahead. >> pelley: the new threat from the great recession is the sudden surge of the number in abandoned houses. vacant homes have become so ruinous to some neighborhoods that one city, cleveland, decided it had to find a solution. perfectly good homes, worth $75,000, $100,000 or more a couple years ago, are being ripped to splinters in cleveland. >> cooper: it was christopher columbus who named this area "the gardens of the queen," after his queen, isabella, but the real gardens he probably never even got a glimpse of. to see them, you have to go

underwater. >> this is really the most incredibly well-protected and flourishing reef i've ever seen. >> cooper: every time we went diving, we could see sharks circling our boat before we even went in, our guide said they wouldn't bother us, we certainly hoped they were right. >> safer: meryl streep has a unique gift. she does not just portray a character. she becomes her. >> this is a day to put differences aside. >> safer: ms. streep as margaret thatcher, in "the iron lady." she was self-assured and confident... >> oh, yes. >> safer: ...that her way was the only way. >> i have a lot of that. >> safer: she does not have a lot of patience for shooting the same scene time after time. >> i don't like to go over things and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. i don't like that. >> i'm steve kroft.

>> i'm lesley stahl. >> i'm morley safer. >> i'm bob simon. >> i'm anderson cooper. >> i'm scott pelley. those stories tonight on "60 minutes." selections flavors are available one perfectly brewed cup at a time folgers gourmet selections k-cup packs extraordinary roasts. exceptionally rich flavors. available where you buy groceries. ♪ and just let me be [ male announcer ] this is your moment. ♪ your ticket home ♪ [ male announcer ] this is zales, the diamond store. [ male announcer ] this is zales, this was the gulf's best tourism season in years. all because so many people came to louisiana... they came to see us in florida... make that alabama... make that mississippi. the best part of the gulf is wherever you choose... and now is a great time to discover it. this year millions of people did.

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>> pelley: chances are the home you're in isn't worth what it used to be. you may not have indulged in the real estate bubble with its liar's loans and wall street greed, but you were stuck with the bill. home values have dropped so far so fast, that nearly 25% of mortgage holders today owe more than their house is worth. and with unemployment so high so long, many face foreclosure. if you thought your home value couldn't drop anymore, have a look up and down the block. you might say, "there goes the neighborhood." the new threat from the great

recession is the sudden surge in the number of abandoned houses. vacant homes have become so ruinous to some neighborhoods that one city, cleveland, decided it had to find a solution. perfectly good homes worth $75,000 - $100,000 or more a couple of years ago, are being ripped to splinters in cleveland, cuyahoga county, ohio. here, the great recession left one fifth of all houses vacant. the owners walked away because they couldn't or wouldn't keep paying on a mortgage debt that can be twice the value of the home. cleveland waited four years for home values to recover, and now they have decided to face facts and bury the dead. why destroy them?

jim rokakis, a former county treasurer, showed us. >> jim rokakis: we're looking at a neighborhood that has almost as many vacant houses awaiting demolition as there are houses with people living in them. we have one here. one here. one here. one there. >> pelley: rokakis is leading the effort to tear down thousands of abandoned homes because they're rotting their neighborhoods from the inside out. it often starts, he told us, when a vacant house becomes an open house to thieves. it's a nice house from the roof to about here, and then down here, it's been ripped to pieces. what's going on? >> rokakis: well, this is typical because this is as high as they could reach without using ladders. they ripped off the aluminum siding, which you'll see on most of these houses. the aluminum and the vinyl siding comes off. it's getting about a buck a pound. >> pelley: essentially, foreclosure scavengers have been through here? >> rokakis: the thieves have gone high-tech. they know when evictions are occurring because they're posted online. and they will follow the sheriff. they're usually there that

afternoon or that evening. so, in here, what you're going to see... well, i guess they took everything, including the proverbial kitchen sink, right? the sink is gone. the plumbing... plumbing is gone in this house. all the copper. anything metal that had value is gone. the furnace is gone. >> pelley: the light fixture... >> rokakis: light fixture came out... >> pelley: ...is gone. >> pelley: how often is this happening in cleveland? >> rokakis: this happens every day. and the foreclosure crisis creates this spiral, because, as a result of this, people are now more likely to leave neighborhoods like this. and as they leave, the scavengers come in and do the same thing to the house next door or across the street. >> pelley: to make the house next door worth more instead of less, vacant land created by demolition is often given to the neighbors, and sometimes turned into fields or gardens. cleveland and cuyahoga county believe that only by turning the failures of the great recession into green space can they stabilize the value of what's left. otherwise, the scourge would keep spreading.

when you see a house that the scavengers have torn apart like this one, i mean, what does it do to the guy next door? >> rokakis: it clearly makes his house worth a lot less money, because when you've got four or five, six vacant houses on a street like this, your house isn't worth a percentage less, it's just worthless. >> roberta bryant: it's probably worth about $30. i mean, seriously. who knows? it's sad. it's really sad. >> pelley: roberta bryant lives at the end of the street in a house made, essentially, worthless by her vacant neighbors. do you think, in this neighborhood, you could even sell this house if you wanted to? >> bryant: no, i don't think anybody would buy it. are you interested? >> pelley: i don't live in cleveland. >> bryant: okay. well, this could be your summer home.

( laughter ) >> pelley: in theory, there shouldn't be this many abandoned houses. when homeowners walk away, the bank is supposed to take responsibility. but one little known feature of the great recession is that many banks are walking away, too, unwilling to maintain a house whose value has crashed. >> rokakis: very often, a bank will take a property to the point of foreclosure, but won't go to the sheriff's sale because they don't want that property. they don't want the responsibility of the $8,000- $10,000 bill that comes with tearing this house down. >> pelley: former county treasurer jim rokakis says some banks have turned their backs on a blight they created. >> rokakis: in a normal real estate market, people are out looking for loans. in the perverse real estate market we created in this country, you know, during the period 2000 to 2006, this wasn't people looking for money, this was money looking for people. and that's why so many of those loans were made without down payments and without verification of income, and, i might also add, phony appraisals. >> pelley: and this is the result? >> rokakis: this is the result. and it's not just here; it's all over america. >> pelley: "all over america," 11 million homeowners owe more than their house is worth. they're said to be "underwater."

and the truth is, more neighborhoods would collapse if it weren't for people like linda bizzelle, who refuses to walk away from her mortgage, even though it might be best. >> linda bizzelle: the mortgage company called me and said that i was getting ready to go into foreclosure. so i mailed a payment in that day, and it was the last of my savings. >> pelley: that you sent in on this mortgage that's underwater? >> bizzelle: oh, yeah. >> pelley: her house is worth $50,000 and she owes $100,000. a financial planner might tell her to put something away for retirement rather than pay a mortgage that will never recover, especially since she lost her job in nursing last april. what have you been cutting back on? >> bizzelle: sometimes food. i would go to the food bank in order to make up the difference, so that i wouldn't be completely hungry. sometimes, i wouldn't get my medications renewed. i take medication for high blood pressure.

and my doctor could always tell when i didn't take them and he said, "oh no, you can't do that. no, no." >> pelley: you're living on unemployment right now? >> bizzelle: yes. >> pelley: what about the next mortgage payment? >> bizzelle: i'm going to pray. that's the best i can do. i'm going to pray that i find a job. >> pelley: when you think of it, her neighbor's home values are being propped up by linda bizzelle's fragile grip on the american dream. we found a lot of people spending their last dollar to keep their homes, and therefore save their neighborhood. gina bruno owes $50,000 more than her home is worth, and her dream house has turned into a money pit. >> gina bruno: the gas line needed to be replaced. the sewer line needed to be replaced. the plumbing was bad. the roof was leaking. >> pelley: do you have any savings? >> bruno: no. no.

>> pelley: so you're living paycheck to paycheck? >> bruno: absolutely. yeah. >> pelley: writing checks to the contractors and to the bank. >> bruno: yup. i used to go out with friends and have dinner, and i just... i don't do any of those things anymore. >> pelley: a few miles away, beverly anderson and her neighbors are the only thing standing between their neighborhood and utter ruin. for them, paying the mortgage is a matter of principle. >> beverly anderson: that's just how i was raised. once you, you know, you sign it, it's... it's a contract you uphold what you can for as long as you can. >> pelley: these folks bought the first homes in what was supposed to be a 100-house development outside cleveland called cinema park. but the developer went broke in the recession, leaving just six occupied homes surrounded by empty acres, roads to nowhere, and fireplugs with nothing to protect. >> norma scott: immediately when the boards went up, all of our mortgages went underwater-- our hopes, our dreams, our savings. >> pelley: norma scott's

predicament is typical around this table: $200,000 mortgage; $100,000 house. still, all but one of these neighbors plan to keep on paying, including high school teacher monica hubbard. >> monica hubbard: because i signed on the line. i made a promise. i made a commitment, and i can still afford it, basically. >> pelley: you know, there are lots of people all over the country, many thousands of people who are mailing the keys to the bank and walking away. they can't figure out how it makes sense to put more money into a mortgage that's underwater. >> hubbard: can't speak for them. i can only speak for me and my reputation that i have to uphold. >> pelley: your signature means something. >> hubbard: it does. it does. >> pelley: norma scott is the only one throwing in the towel. she stopped paying her mortgage when she got breast cancer and had to stop working for a while. >> scott: i made the mortgage

payments for as long as i could, and then the money just ran out. >> pelley: and then they sent you a letter last christmas eve. >> scott: yes, and foreclosed on my property. >> pelley: it seems to me that you're living day to day, waiting for a telephone call or a letter from the sheriff. >> scott: from the sheriff, uh- huh. >> pelley: the cuyahoga county sheriff is doing 50 evictions a month. chris waple owned a restaurant, but when it went under, he couldn't make his mortgage payments. and so waple and his family were evicted from the house that he'd lived in for 23 years. he'd raised five children here. that was more than three months ago that chris waple left this house, and it's still vacant. there's not a "for sale" sign in front of it, because the realtors tell us, if there are too many "for sale" signs in one block, it makes everything harder to sell. just four doors down, graham jarvis learned that the hard

way. his house has been on the market six months, but only six people have taken a look. next door, jennifer wylie has seen the value of her home drop 50%. you can't see it in this neighborhood because they're keeping up appearances, but a quarter of the houses here have been emptied by foreclosure. and on this handsome block in well-to-do cleveland heights, at least four vacant homes are scheduled for demolition. former county treasurer jim rokakis says banks could stop the wrecking crews if they would only reduce the loan balances on underwater mortgages. >> rokakis: you're going to have to write down principle balances, because if you don't write down the principle to something that's more realistic, it just guarantees that more people will walk away and more people will default. >> pelley: look, you're asking the banks to write down the principle on these houses, to take losses in the millions, if not billions, of dollars.

>> rokakis: oh, hundreds of billions. >> pelley: why would they do that? >> rokakis: aren't you better off, let's say, on a $150,000 mortgage preserving $75,000 in value, as opposed to letting that house go vacant, possibly seeing the house vandalized and drop to a value well below that? i mean, they helped to cause this mess, and it's not going to fix itself without their cooperation. >> pelley: cuyahoga county ripped down 1,000 homes this year, and they have 20,000 more to go. that'll cost about $150 million. all that's keeping other neighborhoods from the same fate are those 11 million underwater homeowners like linda bizzelle who stubbornly refuse to walk away. >> bizzelle: i want to keep my home. it... it... you know, when you've worked all your life to get the american dream, you don't want to just walk away.

you don't want to do that. you do whatever it takes to keep what you have. >> welcome to the cbs sports update presented by follow the wing, i'm james brown, kansas city hands green bay its first loss, seattle play-offs hope to still alive. the giants one game twind dahl a the patriots clinch the afc east. lions overcome a fourth quarter deficit, the eagles renain in a postseason hunt. the saints win, the bengals snap a two game losing streak ending with the first game, tennessee's defeat puts pittsburgh in the play-offs, for more sports news go to cbssports.com. follow the wings.

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>> pelley: now cnn's anderson cooper on assignment for "60 minutes." >> cooper: coral reefs are often called "the rain forests of the ocean." they're not just biologically

diverse and stunningly beautiful, they're a source of food and income for nearly a billion people. they're also in danger. scientists estimate that 25% of the world's reefs have died off, and much of what's left is at risk. there is, however, one spot in the caribbean that marine biologists describe as a kind of underwater eden, a coral reef largely untouched by man. it's called "the gardens of the queen," and getting permission to go there isn't easy-- it's located off the coast of cuba, and as you might have already guessed, there are no direct flights. our first stop was havana... cuba's crumbling capitol, where music fills the air, old cars seem to run forever, and the only ads you see are for the revolution. from there, we drove for six hours through the countryside, and then took a boat for six hours more until we got to a stretch of tiny islands 50 miles off cuba's southern coast.

the islands are little more than patches of mangroves and small spits of sand. the only inhabitants who greeted us-- hermit crabs and iguanas. they seemed indifferent to our arrival. it was christopher columbus who named this area "the gardens of the queen" after his queen isabella, but the real gardens, he probably never even got a glimpse of. to see them, you have to go underwater. >> david guggenheim: this is really the most incredibly well protected and flourishing reef i've ever seen. >> cooper: we went diving with david guggenheim, an american marine biologist and a senior fellow at the ocean foundation in washington, d.c. >> guggenheim: the corals are healthy. the fish are healthy and abundant. there are predators here, large sharks. it's the way these ecosystems really should look. >> cooper: you're saying this is like a time capsule, almost? >> guggenheim: it's... it's a living time machine, and it's a

really incredible opportunity to learn from. >> cooper: we brought special scuba masks with us so we could talk underwater. every time we went diving, we could see sharks circling our boat before we even went in. david said they wouldn't bother us, and we certainly hoped he was right. the first thing you notice in this underwater eden is the coral, it's color, it's texture. coral isn't a rock or a plant; it's colonies of tiny animals that share a common skeleton. this is a large and relatively rare specimen of pillar coral. those hair-like things are the tentacles of thousands of individual animals that are plucking microscopic plankton from the water. coral is one of the oldest living animals on the planet. some of it is said to be 4,000 years old, older than the tallest redwood. what makes coral reefs so important is that they host an extraordinary variety of fish. some come here for shelter from predators, others come here to i't.