. >>> i'm rafer weigel with sports. the nfl owner caught flipping off the other team, now has to pay for it. $250,000, that is the check that tennessee titans owner bud adams has to write after being caught on cell phone video flipping the bird many times in their win over buffalo. now, he did apologize saying he got caught up in the excitement of the game. so what are you saying about it on our facebook? 250 grand, the punishment does it fit the crime? janeane posted, he should lose ownership. it wasn't harsh enough. the leader of a team shouldn't be expressing such rudeness. dave wrote, well, i did think it was a bit excessive at first, but when he gave the double bird he just went over the top. how much is the fine for one bird? michael vick did it in '06 and got fined 10 grand. go to cnn.com/robin, tell us what you think. we'll be reading them all morning long. >>> in other news, the misery continues in cleveland, the browns had another horrid loss, fans showing their displeasure with these somewhat hilarious signs

rafer weigel with more on that. great to hear from him. >> it was great to hear from him but seven words was all usc's stephan johnson was able to get out and doctor says that was a miracle. this was him last month after he greeted his teammates after dropping a 275 weight bar on his throat, crushing a larynx. he could not speak and was breathing and eating through his throat. because of a gladiator-like mentality, he repeated the words about his grandfather. >> run, stafon, run. >> whether he plays football again is not clear. he's a senior. he could get a degree of eligibility. when he asked about it, he shrugged. but i hope he does. >> it was inspiring to hear that. >> it was. >> rafer, be back with more. >>> coming up for you later today, we are, of course, watching what's happening with weather. before we get to that, i want to talk about a record that will make you say boy what i used to do at home is nothing. people set up a knockdown of more than 4 million dominos. it is huge. take a look at this. >> three,

rafer weigel has more on that. >> good morning. seven words. that is all usc runningback stafon johnson was able to get out. eve than is a miracle. this was johnson when he greeted his teammates last month. back then he couldn't speak. he was breathing and eating through a tube. doctors say because of a gladiator like mentality he can swallow and repeated the last words spoken to him by his late grandfather. >> god has a plan. run, stafon, run. >> whether he ever plays football again, though, robin, it's not clear. when he asked about that, all he did was just shrug. >> it's amazing he was able to speak, like you said. because it must have damaged his voicebox so much. his larynx. thank you. >>> a passenger plane hit a flock of birds right after takeoff this weekend. the frontier airlines jet him them about 4,000 feet above kansas city saturday. >> heard this rumble, bang, you know, bomb bomb. then saw kind of like a flash. and then you saw smoke. and then, you know, we started decreasing in altitude. >> yikes. well, an airport spokesperson say

here's rafer weigel with more on that story. >> you a fan of the captain morgan's rum? >> i am, actually. here and there. >> that's why we call you the captain. no, that's not why. but in this story, yahoo! sports claims that the rummaker wanted players to do the captain morgan's pose after scoring a touchdown. the win scythe says the league learned of it after the eagles' brent celek did it on sunday. and even appeared to get some help from teammate jason avon. there it is. no it's the right leg. celek denies intentionally striking the pose. but yahoo! said -- nfl very strict about endorsements during these games. when michael vick and the eagles go through san diego on sunday, he has an invitation to see one of the dogs rescued from his dog fighting ring. this is iggy, who was found chained in the woods at vick's home. iggy is doing okay but he's very skittish. as can you see, this is how he reacted when the camera crew showed up. he's not comfortable around strangers. the dog's owner said vick really has turned his life around. he should visit the dog. vick declined

here's rafer weigel with that story and more. >> good morning to you, richard. real stunny stuff to hear this but he is very optimistic about it, which is a good thing of the we're talking about a basketball legend and star in films like "airplane" and other tv shows. the 62-year-old kareem abdul-jabbar said as we diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer called myeloid leukemia back in december. but the good news is his doctor says it's not a death sentence and he has a very good chance to live a normal life. >> i had a very good friend who died just three, four years ago from a different type of leukemia, but when that happened, it was devastating. and i thought i had the same thing, and i had months or weeks to live. >> now, he is now partnered with a company that makes drugs to treat those with the disease and is now a paid spokesman for them. richard, trying to get other folks who may be, you know, fighting this disease some hope that, look, you can beat this thing. >> yeah. he's always been a childhood hero to many, including myself. we were talking about

here's rafer weigel with more on that. good morning. >> good morning to you, robin. the 62-year-old says he has cancer, a disease that has a history in his family. his father, his uncle and his grandfather all passed from it. jabar is optimistic saying the rare form of leukemia he has is treatable according to doctors. the 62-year-old was diagnosed in december but he's now talking about it because he wants to give others hope, who also might be diagnosed with the disease. he was not only a basketball star for the lakers, but he appeared in movies like "airplane" in a bunch of tv shows and now partnering with a company that makes drugs to treat those with the disease. however he approached the company about working together. robin? >> certainly thinking of him. thank you, rafer. >>> seven years after he terrorized the washington, d.c., area, john allan muhammad is scheduled to die tonight. correspondent richard liu joins us now with a look back at the d.c. sniper shootings, seven years already. >> that's right. seven years ago, october the 2nd, 2002, one man was gunne

rafer weigel, interesting stuff here with that team. >> yeah, and it's very exciting. as they say, lace yay les bon temps roulez. let the good times roll. it's nice the people of new orleans have something genuine to cheer about as the saints are just on fire. they won their eighth straight game against carolina in a come pr hind win to stay undefeated. they are having the best year in the franchise's 43-year history, and now they're talking super bowl, which they've never been to even though their home, the superdome, has been host to many. >>> meanwhile, the only other unbeaten team in the nfl is peyton manning's indianapolis colts. they beat the houston texans in dramatic fashion. they were up 20-17 with one second left. houston with a chance to tie it. here it is. >> and it is no good! he missed it! he missed it! colts win! colts win! colts win! >> oh, that's got to hurt. kicker chris brown misses left. the colts have now won 17 straight regular season games. >>> all right. i've got some rather disturbing video to show you and it's your alma mater, richard. the goo

but it looks, great, rafer w weig weigel. >> but doesn't look good empty. >> it was not empty last night. people looking forward to the victory parade, when that happens. we're talking about the new york yanks. >> the empire fights back. it is the first one for the yankees in their new $1.3 billion park and their first in nine years. oh, how they've just suffered so much and how sweet it was. >> yankees win, the yankees win! >> incidentally, when the yankees opened old yankee stadium in 1923, they won the series that year too. every time they open a new park, they win. as richard said, victory parade is tomorrow. >>> michael jordan's song, marcus, played in his first game and already cost his school millions of buck. wore his dad's nike air jordans. that's nice, but the school has a deal with adidas reportedly worth almost $2 million. as a result, adidas pulled the plug and said it will not renew its deal with ucf when it expires next year. we've been taking your thoughts on this. ken wrote, i think it is a very selfish choice made by jordan's son. he made a decision that showed no conce

here's rafer weigel. rafer, i'm starting to feel bad for the phillies. >> don't feel bad for the phillies because they won it last year. >> okay, okay. >> so now the yankees won it this year. but it would be nice if maybe another team would win it next year. but the yankees do know how to celebrate. this is their 27th title but their first since 2000, so that's a long time to suffer. it's also their first in their new $1.3 billion stadium. and how sweet it was. >> series over! yankees win! the yankees win! >> and sweet redemption for alex rodriguez. a guy who had never won a world series title. so they're probably still celebrating in new york right now. kids, get to bed. >>> michael jordan's son, marcus, played in his first game, and he already cost the school millions of dollars. marcus playing in central florida's first game wore his dad's nike air jordans. here's the problem. the school has a deal with adidas reportedly worth about 2 million bucks or around there. as a result, adidas says it won't ren

here's rafer weigel to explain. what's going on with this? hey. >>> jordan's son plays for the university that has a deal with adidas. adidas will no longer sponsor them after he wore a pair of air jordans made by nikki. a spokesman confirmed it in an e-mail. some support jordan's family allegiance while others are saying he's not being a team player by going with the deal that's in place. so we want to know whose side are you on here? is jordan not being a team player or is adidas being too har snsh it's michael jordan's son. post a comment on our facebook page. we will read them on the air. and lisa has already written in, if the school has a contract and the player cannot abide by the school's contract, then he shouldn't play no matter who his father is. keep those thoughts coming. >>> in other news with all the negative attention weighing heavy on his heart, florida linebacker brandon spikes asked to serve a full game suspension for apparently trying to gouge the eyes of a georgia running back. spikes' coach urban meyer got criticism beca

rafer weigel's been watching this story. >> yeah. well, you know, i said i'm not so blind to not realize this happens all the time in football. >> right. >> i still felt the guy should be suspended. but of all the people to come to brandon spike's defense and say i was wrong, the man whose eyes he tried to gouge out, says he should not be suspended at all, sticking his fingers in his face mask in an attempt to hurt him. spikes was suspended for half a game. ealey seemed surprised that the play is getting so much attention and said they're just out there playing football and these kinds of incidents happen all the time. so my kid's not going to play football. speaking of football. roger goodell is asking congress's help to eliminate steroids, help me to help you. goodell told lawmakers they could wipe out the drugs if it weren't for state laws. two minnesota players were suspended for taking a banned substance but were reinstated after they sued in a state court. one congressman said involving us in the fed could open a pandora's box.

rafer weigel has more on this disturbing story. rafer? >> natasha, authorities had been looking for the three since late sunday night. they are 22 years old, 21 and 20. the three made frantic calls to friends before the line went dead and they were found inside their jeep in a pond near dickinson state university. it was believed they were star gazing. a former teammate and coach took the news hard. >> in she was my daughter, i would be proud. she was an awesome person. >> she was great, very fun-loving, funny as can be. like you could joke with her. she wouldn't care. >> natasha, right now authorities do not suspect foul play. >> just so sad. rafer, thank you. >>> overhauling your health care, it may take longer than expected. yesterday senate majority leader harry reid was asked had if his health care bill would pass this year. reid refused to give a timetable. democrats say the congressional budget office blew its deadline for analyzing the bill's cost. the senate can't vote until they're finished. the delay may also mean reid is havin

rafer weigel has more on this story. rafer? >>> yeah, natasha, authorities had been looking for these three women since late sunday night. they are kyrstin gemar, afton williamson and ashley neufeld. investigators say they were found inside their jeep in a 12-foot-deep pond on a farm near dickinson state university. authorities think the women made two calls to friends for help. authorities do not suspect any foul play at this point. just a sad story. natas natasha? >> it really is. we'll talk to you more about it later on in the show. >>> let's go to meteorologist bob van dillen and find out if the forecast is cooperating today. hey, bob. >> good morning to you, natasha. so far so good. we have one weak clipper type system rolling out of the great lakes and the midwest. on the big picture with the satellite because other than this there's not much going on with the exception of southern parts of florida. we'll zoom on into trouble spots. it's around chicago, some extremely light rainfall moving away from the city. we'll zoom o

here's rafer weigel with the latest on that. hey, rafer. >> yeah, natasha, things are sunny in philadelphia again. do you know what they did? >> what? >> they changed their music. they stopped playing jay-z in the did you ugout. they were against the wall. the yankees were the ones doing the dancing in the dugout. that's cabrera. isn't he hurt? >> that's what they said. >> he doesn't look hurt to me. this guy has one of the best names if baseball. he had not one, but two home runs in the game to lead philly to the win. utley now has five home runs through the entire series, which is amazing, so we're going back to the bronx for game 6 on wednesday. i hope you didn't stay up all night, bob. >>> in other baseball news a milestone has been reached in professional sports with the chicago cubs. the cubs have the first openly gay owner. laura ricketts of the ricketts family who bought the team is an open lesbian. she came out in her 30's and her family supports her 100%. >>> he intentionally tried to gouge the eyes of georgia's w k wa

here's rafer weigel with that story. hey, rafer. >>> good morning, natasha. look, there's probably nothing more grueling than running a marathon. you cannot imagine how hard it must have been for this woman. but 61-year-old zoe koplowiz completed on monday wearing braces on her back and knee and using purple painted crutches. koplowitz walked the entire route with her supporters in just under 29 hours. the motivational speaker was diagnosed with ms 30 years ago and this woman is truly an inspiration. more sports in a bit. >> that is really inspiring, rafer, thank you. >>> the polls are open in new york. this race is being watched all over the country, too. conservative party candidate doug hoffman is battling with democrat bill owens to represent the state's 23rd congressional district. former republican nominee scozzafava dropped out amid conservatives who said she was too moderate. top gop leaders and the republican national committee have put their resources behind hoffman. now you may remember disturbing video of anna nicole smith dressed up as a clown mo

rafer weigel, i have seen the pictures. i cannot believe somebody walked away about. >> that's the amazing thing and a real testament to nascar, how safe these cars are. you're right. but every year, there's a big crash at talladega speedway. this year, there was two. this was the worst of the two. ryan newman. you can see his car here with five laps to go. it gets airborne, flips upside down, slides along the roof, sputtering along the crack. it hits the wall here. we're obviously showing you this in slow motion. it's not even close to being over. it would slide down to the grass where it would then flip over a few more times before it lands again on the roof. it took crews 13 minutes to get ryan newman out of this car. he said it was like, quote, being stuck in a tomb, not able to get out. there he is. amazingly walked away from this crash and he would be okay. as i said, there was another crash, i'll have that in a few minutes. again, he was okay. >> unreal. all right, rafer, thank you. >>> let's go to this story near au