Major storm, nearly a foot of snow in parts of texas this morning. That system moving east with washington, new york, and boston all in its path. And not backing down. The woman at the center of the scandal describing her claims in explicit detail. And despite his emphatic denial, she alleges at least six encountered with famed attorney Alan Dershowitz. Will he respond today, january 22, 2015. Announcer from nbc news, this is today with matt lauer and Savannah Guthrie live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to today. Its 7 00 a. M. On the west coast on a thursday and at last weve heard from the head coach of the new England Patriots about the whole deflategate. Vintage Bill Belichick saying he didnt know about this until after the game, at one point deflecting to tom brady, saying ask tom, the quarterback of the new England Patriots. A lot of people talking about this with the super bowl so close now. Ehe just wrapped up his remarks insisting he had no knowledge of the situation until monday morning. Nbc National CorrespondentPeter Alexander is live at jillgillette stadium in foxborough. Peter, good morning to you. Reporter good morning to you. This was an unprecedented News Conference here inside gillette stadium. We were in the room when Bill Belichick said he was shocked to learn his team, his players, had been using an under inflated ball during last sundays afc championship game. He added its an unfortunate story after two great wins. Anderson and his crew holding up play for a moment. Reporter and thats how deflategate was born. As they look over towards the patriots sideline. Reporter sucking the air out of the runup to the super bowl. The question, how and when nearly a dozen balls were deflated and if the patriots knew about it. At a News Conference, patriots head coach Bill Belichick dodge ed accusations of foul play. I was completely and totally unaware of any of this talked about in the last couple of days until monday morning. Reporter one former nfl ball bay says it would have been almost impossible to pull it off undetect undetected. The deflating of the balls after inspection would have been very difficult. At that point thousands of people are pour inging into the stadium. Officials, media, tv, crew members are everywhere. Reporter several current and former quarterbacks have spoken out insisting altering game balls is nothing unusual. The altering of the ball is definitely coming from the quarterbacks end. For them its really all about how it feels coming off their fing fingertips. Reporter the team and coach Bill Belichick have a reputation for playing fast and loose with the rules. Most infamously during the 2007 spygate scandal when the league found the patriots videotaped opposing teams sideline signals. Just one week before this scandal, the Baltimore Ravens complained about unusual but legal formations the patriots successfully used against them in their narrow playoff win. Clearly deception. Reporter despite the detailed rules about game balls, it doesnt have a precedent for repeat offenders like the patriots. Weve never been down this road before, so we dont know how many years have to go by without cheating to get a team a clean record. The fact the patriots have this track record and its the same coach and same ownership will not help the patriots this time around. Reporter at the end of the News ConferenceBill Belichick effectively handed the ball over to his golden boy qbuarterback, tom brady, saying toms personal preferences on his footballs are something that he can talk about in much better detail. Well get a chance to talk to brady. That is happening, we just learned moments ago, this afternoon in a just scheduled News Conference to take place at 1 00 am p. M. Pacific time. Matt . Peter alexander, thank you. Tq law has won two super bowl s. He was mvp of super bowl xl. Hes now a member of nbcs football night in america. Its good to see you. A pleasure. Ive heard people say this is the mother of all scandals to its not even worth our breath to talk about it. Some said its like talking 61 miles an hour in a 55mileanhour zone. How do you feel about it . Its cheating. Regardless how you may want to spin it, it helped tom brady provide a better grip on the football especially in bad weather conditions like rain. And so you want to deflate the ball because all quarterbacks dont have big hands oregon small hands. Game balls were inspected by referees before the game, at halftime they were found to be under inflated. How did they do it . From the time period when the referee checks the football, you know , you may give the ball to the ball boy and he lets a little air out it have and tom brady feels it, i like this grip. Now youre talking about a conspiracy. Youre talking about several people involved. Would the coach have known . No. It was probably only tom brady and the ball boy because every week for a quarterback in the nfl, they scuff the football, take that new film off the football because it becomes real slick but, also, you want it to let the air out of the ball to have a better grip on it. As a receiver, a guy who performed at the highest levels possible, how much of an advantage it have been to you trying to catch the ball . For guys who have big hands and you use gloves, it makes it easier to catch the football. Its like catching a nerf football. Having it smaller in your hands. For a quarterback its all about the grip. Its all about throwing it. You see quarterbacks who wear gloves because they want to get a better grip on the football while theyre throwing the football. Ill put you out on a limb here. If, and its still if, if this they term tom brady and Bill Belichick, for that matter, knew this was happening and did it intentionally to game some kind of an advantage, were ten days from the super bowl, what should the nfl do and when should this they do it . I dont think theyll do anything before the super bowl. The punishment has to be harsh on the patriots. This is their Second Time Around getting found guilty for cheating. I dont know if you take a firstround pick or fine them money because thats nothing. The patriots dont really want to have a firstrounder anyway. If its not done before the super bowl, doesnt it taint the game . It might especially if they win the game. If you win the game because you look it at the past history, everybody says the patriots havent won a super bowl since spygate. So now if they win the super bowl, now you have this kind of looming over the organization. Were talking about the game for all the wrong reasons ten days out. Hines, its great to have you here. Thank you very much. And we want to know what you think. Head to our Facebook Page and let us know. If guilty and, again, thats it, should the patriots be banned from the super bowl . Should tom brady or Bill Belichick be banned from the super bowl . Is a vansavannah . Youll get a lot of vons on that. A huge fivealarm fire at an apartment complex in new jersey is still smoeldlders at this hour 15 hours after it started. Thats the scene now and this is what it looked like last night. Intense flames forcing hundreds to evacuate. Wnbcs kai simonson is high above that scene. What can you tell us . Reporter savannah, good morning to you. As you can see from these pictures here, a large plume of smoke continues to rise out of the Avalon Apartment complex here in edgewater, new jersey, a luxury apartment complex located along the hudson river just along the tumer west side of man be man. Were getting a better look at the tajdamage as the smoke dissipates. 400 apartments have been destroyed. Four injuries have been reported. Two firefighters and two civilians. Thankfully injures are minor. Emergency response continues. Thats the view from high above. Down to the ground we find ann tomorrow son. Good morning to you. Reporter good morning, is a vaen a. Firefighters are still pouring water on that smoldering apartment complex. There is a state of emergency here in edgewater. Schools are closed. Roads are, too, as firefighters try to figure out what caused that spectacular blaze. You could you could see the fivealarm blaze from manhattan. It was consumed in flames. Owe figureses say the fire damaged or destroyed 175 units. Leaving as many as 400 people homeless for the night including this woman. We slept in what we had. We got the kids and the dogs. Our cars are all underneath. Theres nothing left. Reporter the fire began around 4 30 wednesday afternoon. With no visible sign of the massive destruction to come. There were plenty of people in residence, but i guess you could say the build inging wasnt totally full because of the time of day and that was a fortunate thing. Reporter amazingly none of the residents were injured or killed. With a fire of this scope to have no loss of life and so many people displaced, we actually feel fortunate and thankful. Reporter Fire Fighters carried one person out of the burning building, but Authorities Say everyone else left under their own power. A few firefighters suffered minor injuries. 15 years ago there was a fire on the same site, that apartment complex was under construction. The cause was never determined but arson was ruled out. Now no cause has been determined in this fire. I spoke to several families it this morning who have lost their homes. Today they are trying to figure out how to rebuild. Among those who lost their homes in this fire, new york yankees radio announcer john sterling. Matt and savannah, back to you. Our best goes to them, of course. Ann, thank you very much. Parts of texas dealing with recordbreaking snow this morning and, al, the powerful system thats causing it is moving east. Could cause a lot of travel. Thats right. It ripples all the way he back here to the coast. A. M. Rel lowmarillo amarillo, texas, getting socked. 11 inches of snow, some places as much as a foot. Amarillo has had more snow in january than st. Louis, boston, and juneau, alaska. Its a lot of snow coming in here. These storms causing big problems. We continue to have winter storm warnings. Winter storm watches and advise advisories advisories. Breaking the record of 4. 9 inches in 1966. The storm system now pushing out and as it does brings a lot of moisture. Were going to watch it come through the gulf with heavy showers right on into the panhandle and then well set up along the east coast, make its way up as a noreaster. In the meantime, look for more rain making its way through the south and snow through the west. Savannah . In havana, cuba, reestablishing diplomatic ties and while the opening round was said to be productive, some big obstacles still remain. Andrea mitchell is in havana this morning. Andrea, good morning to you. Reporter good morning, savannah. The president s new opening to cuba is broadly popular according to our recent polls. In fact, when american and cuban diplomats sit down to actually talk about normalizing relations which should start today, neither side knows what to expect. The dawn of a new era between the United States and cuba. For these American College students from Brown University studying in havana, born after the cold war, its a chance to witness history. Were excited to see the culture, and im excited to be a part of this moment in history. Im really intrigued by the political history. Reporter but living like cubans means living without social media. A young person without wifi . Unable to contact my parents or my professors, i dont have anything any way to set up an internship for the summer. Im just kind of out here alone. Reporter for some cubans change isnt coming fast enough. We have better chances of raising a family. There are huge limitations for young cubans to have a home of their own and things like that. Reporter a retired banker he Rafael Hernandez and his wife believe the talks will produce change. Both sizes expect their systems, thats the bottom line. A lot of things will go forward. Eradicate whatever is destructive and then build a new relationship from scratch. Reporter led by two strong women, u. S. Assistant secretary of state roberta jacobson, and a powerful cuban diplomat, the immediate focus is opening embassies in havana and washington. Negotiating regular commercial flights which could take longer, perhaps up to a year. Then banking, credit, financial ties. Most challenging for the cuban government, say observers, universal access to the internet, exposing more cubans to a wider world, even as a russian spy ship ep in havanas harper today was a lingering reminder of cubas past. And so the question now is how quickly they can overcome the mistrust of the past and agree on an entirely new few tu for our two countries. Back to you, savannah and matt. Andrea mecheitchell in cuba. A top military official. At Guantanamo Bay. A navy captain hases been fired and is being investigated in connection with an alleged affair with a woman on the base and the recent death of her husband. Nbcs chief pentagon correspondent Jim Miklaszewski has more on the story. Good morning. Reporter natalie, this was not just any navy captain. He was the Top Commander of the u. S. Naval base at Guantanamo Bay, cuba. But captain john nettleson was fired in connection with the mysterious death of a worker. Christopher tur was found dead in the waters of Guantanamo Bay about two weeks ago. Criminal investigators reportedly found evidence of an alleged affair between the dead mans wife and captain nettleton. The investigation is still under way. While the captain was in channeling of the naval base, he was in no way connected or had authority over the infamous gitmo detention facility which president obama vowed again to shut down during his state of the union speech this week. Natalie . Jim miklaszewski at the pentagon for us, thank you. Republican heavyweights mitt romney and jeb bush will meet in utah this week leading to speculation that they will try to avoid colliding in a run for the white house in 2016. According to the new york times, bush proposed the meeting with romney several weeks ago. That was before romney made it known that he is considering another president ial run. The two former governors have been drumming up support from donors in recent weeks. Officials in newtown, connecticut, have voted to demolish the home where adam lanza lived before the sandy hook massacre. He shot and killed his mother inside that home before then going on a shooting rampage at the nearby school. The land will be kept as an open space. U. S. Goal keimer hope solo suspended from the Womens National team for 30 days and wont participate in matches next month in europe. U. S. Soccer officials did not reveal the reason for the suspension, but it comes just days after the arrest of her husband, formerer nfl player jeremyramy stevens, for driving under the influence. Solo was in the car at the time but was not arrested or detained. It is the latest offfield trouble for olo. Earlier this month a judge dismissed two misdemean or counts of Domestic Violence against her. Hillary clinton considered by many to be the front winner to win the democratic nomination for president in 2016, but if that doesnt work out, she may try her hand at comedy. During a policy speech in canada on wednesday, clinton described a mock conversation with Vladimir Putin had with himself about becoming russias president again after initially leaving office. Take a look. Vladimir, do you think youd like to be president again . I think i would actually. Why dont we just go announce it. Well tell dimitri he can be prime minister. Excellent, excellent idea. We have a process, yes. I think she sounds a little more like her husband, right . Former president bill clinton there perhaps. Al talks it to himself like that all the time. The good guy and the back guy. I dont think hes right. Get off anyway, lets show you what weve got happening for the rest of the country. We told you about that storm system coming out of texas. We have another system moving into the Pacific Northwest with rain along the coast, icesy conditions inland. Nice day in the northeast. Plenty of sunshine. Temperatures right about average. Were going to get to your local forecast coming up in the next 30 seconds. Ch we built american factories, we use american Raw Materials and we hire american workers. Weathertech. Com, proudly made in america. Quality like this. You cant do that. Good morning to you. Im meteorologist christina loren. The time is 7 18. Food to moderate air qualities across the bay area. Beautiful sunrise taking place over the bay bridge. Not as of fog out there but you might run into dense patches if you wake up with us in the north bay. Temperatures chilly to start but well end up above average by five to ten dpeegz. 65 Degrees South bay and peninsula. Temperature also continue to warm through the upcoming weekend. Thanks very much. Weather. Thanks very much. We were talking about patriots and if theyre guilty what shoot punishment be. How about super bowl saturday when the colts and patriots do it all over again and winner goes on to sunday. Well take it. Not going to happen. But this will go one or two ways. It was either going to peter out or the momentum would build. And its been right there. The deflategate has been on twitter all week long. Lets get right to it. If guilty should the patriots be banned. 81 of you, if you want a stern punishment, this is one way to do with it. 81 saying yes. Heather writes cheating to win should not be tolerated. Melinda say deflated balls dont account for an almost 30 40 point difference. Krispy kremes little this was in the patriots hometown. Boss p ton common coffee having fun. Deflated