we'll begin with al jazeera sports correspondent michael yves, nice to have you with us. >> good to be here, ray. >> is this a big deal? >> it depends on who you ask, if you go by the letter of the law, it is cheating, and for decades the integrity of the game is a very important issue to the national football league. if that is the case, then they should take this very seriously because something did happen. whether it was bill belichick, tom brady or someone on the equipment staff who did it on their own accord, something happened to those balls, and they could say that it gave tom brady and the patriots the advantage. >> but there were "v" been no have there been any fines given yet? >> no, they are continuing the investigation. some felt that some punishment needed to be done before the super bowl, but the last thing they want is for something to occur before the super bowl. they interviewed 40 people in the league officials, but one of the people they had yet to talk to was tom brady, and tom brady said that he does not think that they will talk to him until after the super bowl.

we don't talk much about sports on this show, but when i have questions michael yves has the answer. national football league is a mega enterprise that generates billions of dollars has been generating more and is on target to go into another stratosphere of money. and it's just been plagued by scandal and disrepute in the last year. how do you scare these two? >> the thing that is puzzling to me i've been covering professional sports for 20 years. despite all those transgressions that you mentioned the league makes so much money since roger goodell took overral years ago revenues have improved 65%. it's the demand for the sport. the popularity has never seen a spike like the last couple of years. all these things that would seem to matter to people, they don't. $10,000. that's what it would take you to go to the game on sunday. the cheap sheets. last year at this time it was $2,000. now it's $10,000. the demand from the public is so high that the league just keeps turning out money. >> is there something in particular driving it or the demand for all spectator sports increasing this

michael yves joins us now to tell us more about this year's class. >> well, it was a record-breakingbecause you mentioned those four players. this is the first time ever that three pitchers will go in the hall of fame from the same ballot and since 1955, an induction class includes four players. here is a look at the voting. randy johnson pedro martinez john smoltz and craig biggio each earned the necessary 75% of the vote from the baseball writers of america. and based on their career numbers and the history of hall of fame voting, all four of these players are definitely worthy hall of fame inductees. johnson is a five-time cy young award winner and finished with 4,875 strike outside. his 97.3 percentage is the eighth highest. in the history of the voting. pedro martinez led the major league with earned run averages and helped the boston red sox to their title in 586 years. john smoltz is the only pitcher with 200 wins and 150 saves. he posted 15-4 record in the postseason. craig biggio banged out 360 hits all with the houston astros. he missed out on the hall of fame last year by