Friend of the united states. We didnt always agree. He is somebody who provided real leadership for his nation and friendship with the u. S. Thats a critically important relationship. We know that the new king will be crowned prince who will be taking over who himself is quite old and some say not in very good health. The new prince will be prince mukran. Last of the generation of sons. There will be a real issue once mukran becomes king as to how the succession will go from there. A couple of things to watch. One will be the relationship with syria. Because the saudi opposition to bashar assad was in part based on policy and in part based on personal animosity. Bashar assad once called King Abdullah a half man. And now that that personal element is gone, it will be important to watch how the saudi relationship with syria goes. Second thing to watch will be what happens internally in saudi arabia. King abdullah was known as someone who would push for reforms, particularly with respect to women. With respect to having coed education in the kingdom. Women are now going to be allowed to vote in upcoming elections. He would push for those reforms even when the religious establishment was pushing back against him. Its not clear whether crowned prince will be willing to push as much as King Abdullah did. Those ideas seem, you know very outdated obviously to those of us in the united states. But when you look at them in contrast to sharia law and what we are seeing imposed on young women in the middle east. The atrocious way that women are treated in some of these countries, it makes him look like a real progressive. As you say its been a very complicated relationship. So much is unsettled liz obviously in the middle east with yemen. Is there potential here for something dangerous . Well certainly. I mean you have a situation where, you know, this has been a very bad day for america and her allies. You have now essentially with the collapse of the government in yemen got iran basically in control of at least four capitols in the middle east, baghdad, of damascus, and potentially beirut. And i think that you will continue to see a very strong saudi desire and willingness to stand up against iran. I dont anticipate that will change. That goes to to the very heart of their National Interest of, you know who is the custodian of the two holy mosques in saudi arabia. It is an unsettled time. Its a real opportunity, frankly, for this administration and this president to try to rebuild the relationship. I mean it takes real effort to have a situation where our relationship with israel is in the tank and our relationship with saudi arabia is in the tank. And we he have managed both of those things under this president. Very quickly lids, would you expect president obama to reach out to meet with the new leader of saudi arabia . What would you expect . I guess i would like to say two things. One is i hope they do more than to send james taylor over to the funeral to pay respects to the new king. Obviously they ought to send a very high ranking delegates to demonstrate the importance of the relationship. One other thing is, watch, there is a young man named prince ahmed who is the son now of the new king and it will be important to watch him. He has been the chief of the royal court while his father has been crowned prince. Is he somebody who has wielded a tremendous amount of power. Is he somebody to keep your eye on and watch as we see this transition go forward whether he will pay that same role as his father when he becomes king. You have laid out a lot of important moves that will take place here in saudi arabia. We appreciate it. Good to be with with you. Lets get on to the other big story of the day. The new England Patriots speaking out. I feel like i have always played within the rules. I would never do anything to break the rules. I have no explanation for what happened the prittle dont get the benefit of the doubts. The patriots used 11 under inflated game balls. It helped tom brady provide a better grip on the football. I dont know when they would have time to do that. Its cheating. Regardless of how you may want to spin it. Bigger picture is ethics, cheating and keeping the integrity of the game. Deflate gate as it has been called and the road to the super bowl and tonight we have now heard from the Quarterback Tom Brady happened late this afternoon. And head coach Bill Belichick as well. Brady should be getting ready for the super bowl as he said today but instead is he going on defense. I didnt alter the ball in any way. I have a process that i go through before every game. I go in and pick the balls that i want to the footballs that i want to use for the game. Our equipment guys do a great job of breaking the balls in, you know, they have a process that they go through, when i picked those footballs out, at that point, you know, to me they are perfect. I dont want anyone touching the balls after that i dont want anyone rubbing them you know putting any air in them, taking any air out, to me those balls are are perfect and thats what i expect when i show up on the field. Obviously i woke up monday morning and answered a question on the radio about it. And that was the first i really heard of it. Is tom brady a cheater . I dont believe so. I feel i have always played within the rules. I wouldnt do anything to break the rules. I believe in fair play and i respect the league and everything that they are doing to try to create a very competitive Playing Field for all the nfl teams. Its a very competitive league. You know, every team is you know, trying to do the best they can to win every week. I believe in fair play. And always believe in that for as long as im playing. I was as surprised as anybody when i heard monday morning what was happening. Thats i think over the last few days people have been trying to figure out as the nfl is trying to figure out what part of the process and, you know, from when i saw the ball which was five hours before halftime what exactly happened. Tom do all nfl quarterbacks doctor the balls . Do you feel you have done anything differently than anybody else in the league . J i can only speak for myself. I think there is a process that anybody goes through breaking in footballs i try to explain that to my friends a lot. Football on every play. I want to be very familiar with the equipment that im using, just like my cleats justlike my helmet. Just like my, you know, my pads. You know, you go through that process of breaking the balls in and getting comfortable with them. Of course, i choose the balls that i want to use for the game and then, you know thats what i expect to go out on the Playing Field with. Is it a serious thing. Its very serious. This is a very serious, you know topic. You know, obviously the integrity of the sport is very important. I also think there is another focus that we have also as a team that guys are really focused on our opponent and the things that we have to do to try to be successful. You know, everyone is trying to figure out what happened. But at the same time, you have got to prepare for, you know, the seahawks also. There is a lot there. A lot to go over in what we heard today. Joining me now is the boston globes ben violin has been falling this team. Following this story from the very beginning. Ben, you were there whats with a your reaction to what he said today . I was very shocked at what brady did. First i was shocked that he stood there and took questions for 30 minutes. I thought that was a very long time. The patriots tried to yank him off the podium several times before that, but he stood there and faced the music. With that said his answers did not satisfy the questions that are still out there. Bill belichick earlier in the day said look, i know nothing about this. You have to talk to tom. He is the ones who like the football. What did you make of that ben . A lot of people said belichick it threw him under the bus with that statement. He could have said im the leader of this team. Im the ceo of this organization. It all falls on me. He didnt say that. He didnt at all. He said, hey, im not the guy. Dont talk to me. Talk to the other guy. And the other guy is clearly tom brady who has a much bigger stake in how the footballs are feeling during the game than Bill Belichick does. I generally believe what bill said today about how he is not that concerned with how the footballs feel. Whatever they roll out there, thats what they will play with. Its tom brady who touched the ball 70 times a game. He is the one really concerned. Did you believe tom brady he said i did not alter the ball. As far as i knew the ball was fine when i started playing. Did you believe him . Its hard to. If it is not him touching the football, then who was it . Was it a ball boy and equipment manager . Someone most likely affected these footballs because it wasnt cold enough for the air outside to fully deflate these fooivelts. It had to be someone. The fact that they were all under inflated makes it look like they were deliberate. This is the patriots. No ball boy or equipment manager is going rogue here. Take it on himself to start changing tom bradys ball. I thought his wording was very careful when they asked him so have you spoken to the nfl . Is the nfl questioned you on this whole incident yet . And he said no, and they said are you going to talk to them . And he said i dont know. I dont know if im going to talk to them. It made me wonder if they moved up this News Conference to today so he could say that. Thats a great point. Maybe they were going to talk to him right afterwards and so yes, he h some plausibility didnt that no, i havent spoken to them yet. He sounded like someone who didnt know when that meeting was going to be either. I find it amazing that, you know, its a four hour train ride from new york to boston for League Officials to come up here to conducted this investigation. How hard is it for them to get up here and interview tom brady. Maybe they dont want to answer this question until after the super bowl . Its very possible. Im baffled that they havent spoken to tom brady yet. We havent heard from the officials either. We dont know if they checked the balls properly or what went on from the referees point of view. All right ben. Thank you. Great work on this story. We will see what you have to say about it in the coming days. Good to have you here tonight. So everybody heard what tom brady said about the footballs today but it is not the first time that he has talked about the subject of how he likes his footballs inflated. Here is what he said back in 2011. When ground scores like eight toucheds a year and he deflates the ball i love that because i like a deflated ball. And earlier this week the patriots tight end posting a photo of himself on photo. The caption says warning. Groning may cause deflation. Joining us two players darryl young and the chicago bears. Welcome to both of you. Good to have both of you here. I know you are friends with tom brady. I believe he was in your wedding party. And have you spoken to him since then. Everybody else is just reading the tea leaves when they saw tom talking today. What did you see when you saw him out there today. Interpret it for us . Well, this is a guy that i have known for 20 years. Back to 18 years old. He is one of the greatest competitors i know. Regardless of football. Any sport, anything he does he wants to compete. Is he also a man of incredible integrity. When i saw him say that he didnt cheat and when he texted me and said, you know, i have nothing to hide, this is a guy that understood that how important this press conference was for his legacy. And he stood there and he took questions even though he didnt have to for that length of time because he cared about answering those questions and making sure that there wasnt people that were going to continue to question him and his role in this and he had was very clear he had no role in this. Quarterbacks in general are allowed in the nfl to manipulate the balls in any way they see fit prior to the game. They can scuff them. They can use grass to throw them on. They use dirt to rub on them. They use all kinds of sandpaper and Different Things to get them prepared the way they like. Every quarterback does that that i have seen in the nfl. Thats okay. Its allowed by the envelope. Prior to have the nfl and the official czechs them and used in the game. This is talking about after a the officials checked them something happened with the air pressure. You believe him that he had nothing to do with that and he didnt instruct somebody to take some of the air out after those balls were checked . Thats what he said. A guy that i know that i can trust his word. And going to trust his word and im going to believe him. Okay. Darryl young, lets bring you into this conversation. What was your reaction when you watched today . Did you believe tom brady when he said that he did not alter that ball and basically said he had no idea how that pressure could have changed . I did believe tom brady because is he a guy who has won a lot of Football Games in the nfl. Had a chance to play with him and practice in the Training Camp. Every day mind set be the best at what he does. Looking at him through the Training Camp process and he we are here today. As i recall they ran the ball pretty well. I think they still would have beat the colts rushing and him having three touchdowns and the colts scoring one touchdown. I dont think that affected the game. If it did happen, its unfortunate, i dont think tom brady would stoop to that level. I sensed that that was one thing that was really bothering him today, jay. That this is diminishing or taking away from what has really been a great seasons for them. People look at this team as a team that wins all the time. Its been a long time since they won a super bowl. Its been several years since they have been to one. They have had a few rough years lately. Clearly it upset him that his team is going through. This perhaps because of something that, you know comes from him in some way, shape, or form. Two fold upset its taking attention away from the game. Him and his coach are going to have to answer questions and teammates. Especially when they do media day in the nfl and super bowl week when theyre going to ask everyone about it. He knows that he doesnt want to do anything to take the focus off of their preparation and this game. I think secondly, he didnt want to detract from his legacy and what he has built, you know, going from a six round pick where no one believed in him becoming the first quarterback ever to go to six super bowls. Having the chance to tie joe montana and Terry Bradshaw as the only quarterback with four super bowl wins. Those are things that are important to him. He doesnt want this to detract from that because he has worked so hard to accomplish everything that he has. You know, and he think we have to keep that in mind when we look at him as a guy that has never had any questions about him. You have never heard anything from drugs or anything off the field. He has never had issues. So, we have to keep that in progressive when we think about him and talk about him. Great to talk to you both. Darryl and jay. Thank you very much. Gentlemen. Thank you. Great having you here tonight. Thank you. And patriots head coach Bill Belichick facing reporters today for the First Time Since this scandal broke as well and saying basically, dont blame me. I had nothing to do with this. Learn of the news reports about the footballs. I had no knowledge whatsoever of this situation until monday morning. I have never touched a game ball thats nothing i have any familiarity with. My entire coaching career i have never talked to any player, staff member. About football air pressure. A lot of people say that belichick threw tom brady under the bus in that statement. Didnt stand up for him, said you know you are going to hear what he has to say about that we will see if our guests agree with that joining us now fox dc sports director fox smith and fox sports director chip carter. Welcome to both of you. Its good to have you here today. Scott, let me start with you on this. In terms of belichick, he is a ceo of this organization. Everybody says that nothing happens on the patriots locker room, on the field that Bill Belichick doesnt know about. About did you believe him today . Did i believe him. I think he leaves how the ball is conditioned before the game he does leave that up to the quarterback. When he says thats an issue that you will probably have to talk to tom about. I think instead of throwing tom under the bus. I think he is being honest and truthful about the situation that he probably doesnt spend a whole lot of time thinking about whether the ball is scuffed up enough. He wants to make sure that his quarterback can throw it and is comfortable with it thats an area that falls under bradys control. Chip, let me lems about this. There has been discussion about whether the balls were removed that were left inflated from the first half and changed for the second half. Tom brady was asked about that today. They said there was a minute delay before play started. Didnt you wonder what was going on . He said no, i didnt wonder what was going on at all. He said we went back in and there was no discussion. And its veried who according to a lot of folks that he would not have noticed that play had stopped for a minute for some particular purpose and that there was a different set of balls that might have been brought on to the field. I saw no difference between the first and second half. What did you think about that . He says that tom was accelerating and he wasnt paying attention to it the point that i think you made earlier and i think it was a very plausible one in terms of the entire investigation by the nfl is that a, they are being completely silent on it. We havent heard about anybody talking to tom brady yet. To me its odd that its thursday and the game was sunday. We havent heard anything yet. Two, you heard tom brady talk about the fact that he doesnt want anyone to touch those footballs after he has inspected them. And equipment manager is not going to withdraw or deflate two pounds of air out of those footballs without talking to tom brady. There is some didnt there part of the issue. When you look at this, and you think about, you know, sort of what you know, how closely held the way that he continued to say he didnt know. A lot of folks out there. There is a lot of people that dont like the patriots. They dont like tom brady. He is maybe too good looking. Maybe wins too many Football Games. A lot of people ou