What has this guy worked up . Something that will bring back great memories for all of us today, january 23rd, 2015. From nbc news, this is today. With matt lauer and savannah guthrie. Live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. And good morning. Welcome to today on a friday morning. That lit boil reminded me of a young willie geist in some ways. Really. Same reaction still. It goes to my brain. It goes to my heart. Well tell you what he is talking about later on. Meanwhile, everybody is still talking about deflategate. We heard from brady and belichick yesterday trying to take the air out of the scandal. Come on. Wait a minute. Think of what i could have made. Theyre online. You dont have to look far. Our top story, the ongoing deflategate scandal. New questions are being raised after both new England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick and Quarterback Tom Brady spoke out and denied knowing anything about underinflated footballs. Nbc National CorrespondentPeter Alexander is outside Gillette Stadium in foxborough with the latest. Peter, good morning to you. Reporter matt good morning to you. Neither the patriots wicked genius coach Bill Belichick nor their golden boy Quarterback Tom Brady has been able to silence the teams skeptics. As of late thursday four days after the story broke, brady surprised fans and frankly everyone paying attention saying that he still hadnt been contacted by nfl investigators. With the pressure on the patriots mounting threetime super bowl champion tom brady was forced to play defense. I didnt alter the ball in any way. Reporter just days after laughing off the controversy would you care to weigh in on that . I think ive heard it all at this point. Reporter brady was hit hard with tough questions. Can you answer right now, is tom brady a cheater . I dont believe so. I mean i feel like ive always played within the rules. Reporter but those answers didnt quiet his critics including several former players on espn. I did not believe what tom had to say. I dont believe theres an equipment manager in the nfl that would on his own initiative deflate a ball without the starting quarterbacks approval. Its unbelievable. For you not to know what you touch every play. We have cooperated fully, quickly, and completely with every request that they have made. Reporter bradys denial came just hours after head coach Bill Belichick says he was shocked to learn his team was playing with underinflated footballs. Explanation for what happened. I dont have an explanation for what happened. I dont have an explanation for what happened. I dont have an explanation for what happened. Reporter inside the patriots locker room bradys teammates shrugged it off. Legarrette, do you have faith that the golden boy Quarterback Tom Brady had nothing to do with this . Reporter with the nfl review still ongoing, the patriots say theyre cooperating. Still unanswered how it happened and whos to blame. Its not the most difficult job that the officials have to do prior to the game. The referee will look at that football and hell do the hand feel and make sure it looks good but its not a very difficult or timeconsuming project. Reporter after a half hour at the podium the patriots star tried to put deflategate in perspective. This isnt isis. This isnt, you know no ones dying. Reporter its unclear when the nfl will wrap up its investigation. Frankly, its unclear whether anybody will be punished in deflategate. The patriots leave for the super bowl in arizona on monday. Peter alexander, thank you very much. Mike lupica is a columnist and sportswriter for the New York Daily News and bestselling author. Good morning to you. Good morning, savanna. I want to talk about the nfl and its failure to pick up the phone and call tom brady in a moment but lets take this piece by piece, look at what brady and belichick said yesterday. As far as youre concerned, did they do anything to help themselves . Is what theyre saying about this plausible, credible in your mind . I actually found belichick more plausible, even though it was a case of plausible deny deniability yesterday. I talked to a very famous coach last night who said he had never asked a question in his career about air pressure in the balls even though the coach told me how they used to work these balls over once they got them. The brady thing was sketchier, savannah because he told you that hes presented these footballs i cant believe that were actually treating a bag of balls like an obsession, but he gets these footballs 2 1 2 hours before the game. Theyre exactly right. He doesnt want anybody to touch them. Then once the game starts he cant tell the two pounds has come out of these footballs. But does that mean he orchestrated this whole thing . I cant say that. Do you think this is a case where as we now know about tom brady, he likes to have his footballs a little deflated where he lets the ball boys push it to the line and then perhaps some other factor like weather came into play and now youre suddenly lyly below that threshold . Savannah i was thinking this might be like bridgegate. Could we ever say that Chris Christie ever orrered the lanes closed . No we cant. Did somebody on the staff think this is what top might like me to to yeah but again, we dont know what the nfl has learned. Just because they havent talked to brady yet, he may be the last guy they talk to and when they do talk to him he might be the same guy that we saw yesterday which was one of the great quarterbacks of all time looking like he was running to be class president. Let me pick up on that because i think that was if there was any stunner to come out of the News Conference it was that no one from the league had even so much had made so much as a cursory phone call to brady himself. I get it. Maybe they want to do an investigation, get all their ducks in a row, but not even just picking up the phone and say, hey, whats your side of the story, what do you know about this . I dont know how this thing is laying out. They may be talking to everybody else that they can talk to with the patriots before they get to brady. And then we may find out what happened. And heres the thing, savannah. Even in a world where we pretty much find out everything we want to know about everybody and were having an unspoken thought thats against the law, we may never know exactly how this happened because everybody may do what brady and belichick did yesterday and say i have no idea how the air came out of these footballs. So apparently the only thing i can conclude is these balls deflated themselves. One last question though. I think what people are wondering about the nfl in this case is are they trying to slow up the investigation to get them past the super bowl . Oh they needed this story like a hole in the head after the year theyve had with ray rice and Adrian Peterson and all the heat that goodell has taken. But do they want this to spill over into super bowl week . Probably not. So i keep thinking this thing may be wrapped up by the weekend. But, you know, im an optimist. All right. Mike lupica. We always think of you as an optimist actually. Thank you very much. Always good to get your perspective. Appreciate it. Thanks savannah. In other news the fate of two japanese men held hostage by isis is uncertain this morning. The terror group had threatened to kill them within 72 hours if a 200 million ransom was not paid. That deadline passed overnight. Richard engle is nbcs chief correspondent. Richard, good morning to you. Normally in the past we have heard from isis good morning. Unfortunately seeing video of what theyve carried out. Is it unusual that were hearing nothing this morning . Reporter it is not that unusual. In fact isis has always made good on its threats in the past. But its timing has not always been very specific. In fact with the american journalist Steven Sokolov there were numerous deadlines that were never met and ultimately he was killed. What weve seen with these two japanese hostages is that the kidnappers made an outrageous demand. They asked for 200 million and said they want to be paid within 72 hours. Thats impossible almost under any circumstances, especially when japan has made it clear that it has no intention of honoring this demand. Were learning a little bit more about the two hostages themselves. One of the two japanese was a selfstyled security consultant. He decided to go to syria to find a job, to change his life. Hed had a divorce in japan. Hed had a suicide attempt. Hed been described as something of a lost soul. The other hostage was a friend of his, a journaljournalist an experienced journalist, who decided to go into syria to do some reporting but also to find and rescue his friend. And now these two men have their fates intertwined. Ironic twist. Richard engle, thank you very much. Here at home, a wide area of the east is bracing for a treacherous combination of snow ice, and rain. And, al we could be seeing substantial travel problems over the weekend. . Thats right. And into the beginning of next week because theres not just one but two storms. Heres what the storm left as you got out of new mexico and on into texas. Were talking about upwards of a foot or more of snow causing some treacherous travel. Heres where we stand right now. The system itself is going to be making its way through the south. So weve got heavy rain. In fact we may be seeing some severe thunderstorms as. As we go to the map, atlanta, heavy rain probably airport delays this morning, rain right through the early afternoon hours. This system now pushes up out of the gulf and comes out into the midatlantic. So by 6 00 tonight, were starting to see precipitation make its way into washington. This blue line is the freezing line. Thats the rain snow line. It intensifies friday night. Rain sleet, and slow snowe along the i 95 corridor. Early saturday you have snow in new york so well watch this as it pulls away. Wind gusts will really increase off the new england coast, could be up to 50mileperhour win gusts. Heavy rain down through the south, but as we get into the northeast and new england, look for about generally 3 to 6 inches of snow. New york city 3 to 5, hartford 6 to 9, bangor maine, looking at snowfall amounts 6 to 9 inches and then another system clipper comes out and by monday morning we could be looking at more snow from boston down to washington, d. C. We dont need it. All right, al. Thank you. Willie in for natalie this morning, and willie has the latest on the death of King Abdullah from saudi arabia. I do matt. Funeral services being held this morning for saudi arabias King Abdullah. The 90yearold died on thursday after battling pneumonia. U. S. Leaders remembering him for his efforts to modernize the country and as an ally in the fight against terrorism. But at home in saudi arabia his legacy much more complicated. Amon has more. Saudi arabia is the Worlds Largest producer of oil and the birthplace of islam. To say its an important country in the region and to us back at home would be an understatement. Thats why the ket death of the saudi monarch is sure to have implications not only in the region but in the u. S. Who takes over next is just as important. The announcement was made on state tv. King abdullah bin abdulaziz, the saudi monarch and one of americas closest arab allies died after a recent illness. President obama described the king as leader who was always candid and had the courage of his convictions. At home he pushed through Economic Reforms and tried to modernize education, opening the kingdoms first coed university. A close u. S. Ally King Abdullah was instrumental in supporting americas invasion of iraq during the first gulf war. Former president george h. W. Bush calling it a moment of unparalleled cooperation between our to two great nations. In the early aftermath of 9 11 saudi arabia doubled down on its relationship with the u. S. Becoming a key ally in the u. S. War on terror and has been a lasting relationship through the obama administration. And ive been struck by his wisdom and his graciousness. Reporter but some critics said american praise went too far for an absolute monarch who ruled an undemocratic kingdom with a poor human rights record. President obama was criticized for taking this bow when he came facetoface with the saudi monarch. In recent years, the u. S. saudi relationship has been challenged. King abdullah was increasingly concerned about the u. S. Nuclear Negotiations with iran saudi arabias regional enemy. He was also frustrated the u. S. Didnt do more to stop the bloodshed in syrias civil war. The new king will have to deal with two major threats to the kingdom. To the south al qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is still a Formidable Force that wants to top it will saudi monarch, and they arent the only ones. To the east in iraq is the military group isis which also wants to overthrow the kingdom. More change in the middle east. The president of yemen has resigned under pressure for rebels. This has severely complicated american efforts to combat terrorism in that country. The Prime Minister there also has stepped down. The massive fire at an apartment complex in new jersey now has been determined to be accidental. Maintenance workers making some plumbing repairs accidentally sparked the blaze with a blow torch. Wednesdays fivealarm fire quickly consumed the complex that sits directly across the hudson river from new york city forcing residents to evacuate. Took more than 15 hours for fire crews to contain that blaze. A duck shot by a hunter in Washington State has tested positive for h5n1 bird flu, a relative of the virus thats killed 400 people globally. Its the first case of h5n1 ever seen in the u. S. It does not appear to have infected people or domestic poultry but does show that wild migratory birds can carry dangerous virus here. And if you think youve seen parents get a little intense at a kids sporting event, wait until you see this. It happened in york pennsylvania during a girls hockey game. Watch the dead dadd on the left coming up to the glass, gets up after a penalty is called smashes his hand through the glass, it shatters into pieces and falls onto the ice. If you listen closely, you can hear someone in the crowd yell, with the way to go paul. Thats paul smashing the glass. That the man has been banned from that arena. Apparently they said his wedding green hit the glass just so broke the ring broke the glass. Glass everywhere. Ridiculous. Weve been there. Ive been to Little League game where is parents just get out of control. Yeah. Crazy. Its insane. Willie thank you. Mr. Roker what do you have . Way to go al lets go to the map. At lot of wet weather in the Midatlantic States gulf coast as well sunshine in the central plains. A real wintry mix moving into the Pacific Northwest later this morning. Look for sunshine and 73 in los angeles. Were going to get to your local fo good morning, im meteorologist bill henley. A cold start but well see lots of sunshine during the day today. And the temperatures climb to the low 40s this afternoon. Its tonight that gets messy. A noreaster moves in with snow that will be accumulating late this evening and into early saturday. Then a brief period of sleet and freezing rain before it changes to all rain before sunrise on saturday. Dry sunday. A chance for some light snow monday. Then it gets much colder tuesday, wednesday and into thursday. Have a great day. And thats your latest weather. Matt . Thanks very much. Theres news this morning tong Measles Outbreak tied to disney theme parks in california as Health Officials are rushing to stop the spread. Nbcs Halle Jackson is in anaheim. Halle, good morning to you. Reporter good morning, matt. This morning disney is monitoring about 100 colleagues of the workers infested with measles here and offering free vaccinations to its park employees. California public Health Officials say if youve been immuneized against measles, this park and places like it are absolutely safe. If youre not or if your child is under a year old or too young for the measles you may want to think twice. For these disneyland visitors the trip is all about mickey not measles. Very careful. We made sure she had her vaccine and everything. Reporter but the outbreak that keeps spreading beyond the Southern California theme park has some staying away. We were going to take our son, whos 8 months old, but he hasnt been vaccinated yet. We dont want to put him in jeopardy. So we desided to wait until things calm down i guess a little bit. Reporter disney is now offering free measles shots and immunity tests to all its park employees after five workers came down with the disease in california part of the outbreak now linked to arizona, along with colorado oregon utah washington and mexico. California public Health Officials emphasize its not just disney. Airports mall and other parks or Tourist Attractions can be risky for people who are not vaccinated. The very contagious virus can survive up to two hours on surfaces or in the air, which is why doctors recommend getting immunized. The vaccine is safe. People are always concerned about that. And its clear that you can protect your family and yourself from getting the measles by getting vaccinated. Reporter experts say thats the best way to keep the happiest place on earth healthy. Even some adults who have been vaccinated are concerned about catching measles, and thats because a lot of us born between 1957 and 1989 may have only had one measles shot instead of two. And while thats still very effective, experts say if you are worried, talk to your doctor about getting a booster, guys. It cant hurt. Incredibly contagious. Worrisome. Halle jackson, thank you very much. Lets turn to carson. The internet had things to say about deflategate yesterday. Fir