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Bush Signs Intelligence Reform Bill Into Law; Kansas Court Rules State Death Penalty Law Unconstitutional; Pfizer: Celebrex Might Increase Cardiovascular Risk

Aired December 17, 2004 - 14:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR, LIVE FROM: Welcome back, everyone. From the CNN center in Atlanta, this is "LIVE FROM." I'm Tony Harris in for Miles O'Brien.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR, LIVE FROM: I'm Kyra Phillip. Here's what's happening now in the news.

HARRIS: The 9/11 intelligence reform bill is now law. After much controversy, President Bush finally signed the bill into law today. He says the law will help the government protect the American people. The measure is the largest overhaul of the nation's intelligence system since 1947.

The highest court in Kansas rules the state's death penalty unconstitutional. Kansas supreme court justices ruled the current law violates the eighth and 14th amendments. The justices say they'll leave it to the Kansas legislature to make the law constitutional. The decision will affect five death penalty cases.

Problems with a popular painkiller. Drug company Pfizer says Celebrex can increase cardiovascular risk. It released data today from a long-term cancer study. Pfizer's CEO says the findings on Celebrex were unexpected. However, the company says it will not pull Celebrex off the market.

PHILLIPS: Some undiplomatic decorations in Cuba just before Christmas. The Cuban government has placed huge billboards showing photos of abused Iraqi prisoners and a swastika across from the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana. This happened after the mission placed a large 75 among its Christmas decorations. That number represents the total of dissidents imprisoned by Fidel Castro last year. CNN's Havana bureau chief Lucia Newman joins us now live by phone with more. First of all, tell us about the controversy this is creating Lucia and then I want to get to the dissidents.

LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon Kyra. Indeed. Well, President Fidel Castro had warned earlier this week that there would be consequences, as he called it, if the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana didn't remove that symbol of the 75 Cuban dissidents from the front lawn of its intersection. This morning, the consequences were graphically displayed along Havana's famous (INAUDIBLE) boulevard which faces that intersection. The graphic posters and banners of the Iraqi prisoners in U.S. custody at Abu Ghraib, also the symbols of swastikas, of fascists and the words made in the USA. All this of course Kyra is meant to say or the message at least is that Washington has no moral authority to talk about political prisoners and human rights at least not to the Cubans, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: That's just a nasty back and forth. Look Lucia, we've been talking so much about the number 75 and how this all started. Can you just brief me on the dissidents and kind of give me an update on who some of these individuals are. Have any of them been released since they were imprisoned?

NEWMAN: OK. About 20 months ago, you may recall, the government made a huge crackdown on the opposition. It imprisoned the 75 dissidents. Among them opposition journalists, human rights activists, promoters of the Varella (ph) project, which is an attempt to bring about some peaceful reforms here in this country. One of them, for example, Ricardo Garcia, was given a 20-year prison sentence for publishing an opposition magazine. The first opposition magazine in fact that's been published here in 45 years since President Castro took power. Now 15 of those dissidents, mostly people that are very, very ill and elderly have been released in the last month.

This has been seen, first of all as an attempt to make sure that nobody dies who is very ill in prison and also, as a way to appease the European Union, which has been clamoring and demanding that Cuba release some or all, in fact, of these political prisoners, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, it just leads me to ask you, I wonder what's next. Do you think this back and forth is going to continue? Are these billboards and these decorations going to have to come down at any time? I understand the mission says, forget it. We're leaving the decorations up through Christmas.

NEWMAN: Absolutely, Kyra. It's getting ugly. That's all I can say. People are already taking bets about which side is going to take down its display first. And I guess all I can say is that this all seems to summarize just what U.S. diplomatic relations have been reduced to, at least this year and it's not -- doesn't bode very well for what's going to come in the new year either, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. We'll continue to check in with you. Lucia Newman, live there from Havana Cuba. Thank you so much. Tony.

HARRIS: A look at other news around the world now. An update on Viktor Yushchenko. Scientists say the Ukrainian presidential candidate was poisoned with the most harmful known dioxin called TCDD. Blood tests reveal the poison was pure TCDD and that it could have come from a government biological weapons unit.

In the Mideast, an Israeli raid on a Gaza refugee camp leaves at least six Palestinians dead and 24 others wounded. The raid was in retaliation for Palestinian mortar attacks.

And in an amicable move, Israel allows Palestinian rescue teams to dig in a prohibited area to save people trapped in a collapsed tunnel. Palestinians say five people were in the tunnel near Gaza's border with Egypt. It's believed the tunnel was used for smuggling. PHILLIPS: Up next, his tale is one of football glory, drug dependency, redemption and lottery luck.

HARRIS: I will talk with Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson about his amazing life on and off the gridiron.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ORELON SIDNEY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I'm Orelon Sidney. Here's a look at your weekend forecast starting off on Saturday with snowfall through much of the Great Lakes down into the Appalachians. Most of this in the south is going to be rain but don't look now. Colder air is going to work down from Canada blasting through the Midwest into the deep south on Sunday. You may find snow as far south as northern Georgia. You will also continue to see windy conditions in the west due to the Santa Ana winds. So despite the cold air in the east, it's going to be warm out to the west. Minneapolis, enjoy your Saturday, a high of 7 on Sunday.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, you are probably spending more money this month than you normally do on holiday gifts or a plane ticket home to be with your family. While you are plunking down the plastic and thinking of next month's bills, you might be thinking, wouldn't it be great if I were lucky enough to win the lottery? Big jackpots make all of us dream big. So it caught our attention this week when the wife of a winner of one of the biggest single lottery jackpots ever awarded said she wished she had torn up that ticket.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS (voice-over): Think this man's lucky? Since he pocketed $113 million, West Virginia lottery winner Jack Whitaker has been arrested twice for drunk driving. Ordered into rehab, his car, office and home have been broken into several times, and his granddaughter has disappeared.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Disgusted with all that's happened.

PHILLIPS: Whitaker's wife said she wishes they'd never cashed in the ticket.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So it's just been more of a burden on her than a blessing?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It certainly has.

PHILLIPS: In October, luck ran out for 32-year-old Rick Camat. He was one of 13 Starbucks employees in Los Angeles who shared an $87 million California lottery jackpot in 2000. Camat was shot to death by police outside a bar in Seattle. Police say he brandished a gun, fired it at a car and also pointed it at officers.

Just last month in New York, parking attendant Juan Rodriguez took home the biggest single jackpot in New York state history. His wife has now filed for divorce and is asking for a slice of the pie. Rodriguez tells the "New York Post" he lives in fear that his family in Colombia will be targeted by kidnappers.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Hollywood is here. While those guys were anxious about bad luck after winning the lottery, we found a guy turning his life around for the better after winning the jackpot. Remember Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson, the first round draft pick of the Dallas Cowboys, star linebacker? He was in prison for a 1983 drug charge. His luck changed. He got sober, got out of prison and won the Texas lottery and he's written about his life in a new book "In control, the rebirth of an NFL Legend." He joins us now to talk about, Hollywood, good to see you.

THOMAS "HOLLYWOOD" HENDERSON, FORMER NFL PLAYER: I am glad to be here.

HARRIS: How long sober now?

HENDERSON: 21 years this past November 8th.

HARRIS: Show the ring. Show the bling.

HENDERSON: That's the sober bowl ring.

HARRIS: Sober bowl ring.

HENDERSON: This is super bowl.

HARRIS: What year? What year?

HENDERSON: '77.

HARRIS: '77.

HENDERSON: Yes. This one is 1983, when I started to change my life.

HARRIS: Now we got to talk about the guy you were, the player you were. First of all the player you were. We've been saying around here that you were Deion (ph) Sanders before Deion Sanders and that says a couple of things. First of all, your incredible skill level as an athlete.

HENDERSON: Yes.

HARRIS: Talk about you as a player, strong, fast, inside linebacker or outside?

HENDERSON: Outside linebacker.

HARRIS: OK. And talk about yourself as a player. How fast were you?

HENDERSON: Ran a 100-yard dash in 9.4. (INAUDIBLE) 4.4. But I was running in grass and gravel. They are running -- now they got rubber bands on them.

HARRIS: Oh, my goodness. But you were also flamboyant. Is that fair?

HENDERSON: Very fair. Came out of an historically black college and was trash talking, loved the game.

HARRIS: Yeah.

HENDERSON: Loved to play football with all my heart.

HARRIS: OK.

HENDERSON: Didn't like the business of football, but loved the game.

HARRIS: Why did your life go south? You had it all. I mean, you had a nice contract. You didn't come from much and you got a nice paycheck when you go in.

HENDERSON: Everything I wanted, but nothing I needed, didn't know how to live. I thought life was a party, went to Hollywood. Got me some cocaine and some champagne and a bunch of girls, and just went crazy.

HARRIS: And you wrote about that in your first book, didn't you?

HENDERSON: Went crazy on cocaine and crack, got in trouble. Did some time in jail. 1986, I walked out of prison in California and as a clean and sober man. And decided that I was, no matter what happened, I was going to stay clean. A doctor said, anything is possible in recovery, in sobriety. Nothing is possible if you get high. I took that advice and I've been doing that for 21 years.

HARRIS: And what did you do in those interim years -- say what '86 you got out of prison.

HENDERSON: Yes.

HARRIS: What have you been doing?

HENDERSON: I have been a public speaker. I have made seven films that are in most rehabs and prisons in the country. Every drunk driving program has a film of me.

HARRIS: So you turned it into something positive.

HENDERSON: Alcohol and drug programs across the country I've worked for since '86.

HARRIS: OK, tell us why you -- as we are seeing you up here, what's your message? When you go in, as we look at a clip from the film, what's your message when you go in and you talk to kids and inmates?

HENDERSON: Sobriety is an option. That's for kids who never start. For those who in it, rethink the relationship you are having with alcohol. Why did you start it? Why do you maintain it? What is it doing for you? Is it working? Have you lost your family, your job, your career as a result of a relationship with alcohol and drugs? So I take it there as a choice. I don't say nobody can. Some people can go have a bottle of wine with their fish and their steak and people like me need a keg.

HARRIS: "In Control, the Rebirth of an NFL Legend." Why did you write this book?

HENDERSON: At 16 years clean, I won a $28 million lottery.

HARRIS: Let's say that again.

HENDERSON: At 16 years clean --

HARRIS: $28 million lottery.

HENDERSON: I thought, Thomas, you got 15 minutes of fame. What are you going to do with it? I did nothing with it. So I waited until I was 20 years clean to start this book. This book is about recovery. I think it's -- if you gave it to somebody you loved and care about who had an alcohol and drug problem, I think it's a gentle intervention. It's like, here, read this crazy book about Hollywood. And I think that there will be a word or sentence or paragraph in this book that could change someone's life. And so if you like to make this gift to someone you love and care about, go to amazon.com and get in control for someone you love and care about. Somebody you are worried about and you're thinking about this Christmas holiday who has begun that relationship with alcohol, who is maintaining that relationship with alcohol and drugs and who may be on their way to a bad place.

HARRIS: You like where you are now in your life? You better for everything?

HENDERSON: Hey, man, I got two grandchildren. I have two children. I'm a grandfather. I'm 51 -- I got a letter from AARP. I got a letter from AARP. I got a letter from AARP.

HARRIS: Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson? Not Hollywood.

HENDERSON: Hollywood got a letter from AARP. The difference between me and Deion Sanders is that I hit. Let's lay it out there.

PHILLIPS: I don't want to get anywhere around that ring when he hits.

HARRIS: You can't do it.

PHILLIPS: The sober bowl or the super bowl. Just don't punch me with one of those rings.

HARRIS: One football question, who do you like this year? Got to ask a football question.

HENDERSON: I really like Pittsburgh for some reason. You know, they were my big east.

HARRIS: Didn't they beat you guys?

HENDERSON: They beat us. They got all the breaks.

HARRIS: They got all the breaks?

HENDERSON: I played good that day. But it's a team sport.

HARRIS: Hollywood, good to see you.

HENDERSON: My pleasure. Thank you for having me on CNN.

HARRIS: It is good to see you, man. Someone who watched you play and enjoyed.

HENDERSON: For your audience, anybody out there, doesn't matter who you are, why don't you rethink your relationship with alcohol and other substances. Wonder why you started and why you are still keeping it up and is it working for you in your life?

HARRIS: Wonderful. Good to see you. Happy holidays.

PHILLIPS: Thank you. Especially when you got the athletes throwing punches, you know, getting arrested. All these negative stories you've been talking about with athletes. Finally, thank you, so much, steroids, everything else. It's great to hear your story.

HENDERSON: Thank you.

HARRIS: Thanks, Hollywood.

HENDERSON: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: All right. Are you waiting until the last minute to finish your holiday shopping?

HARRIS: Boy, your bank account may be thanking you. After the break, how some stores are rewarding shopping procrastinators.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Don't they have a bowl game? I am trying to remember if the Longhorns have a bowl game. OK, as far as holiday shopping goes, the early bird doesn't always get the worm. Some last minute shoppers might luck out as retailers boost perks to lure shoppers.

PHILLIPS: David, he joins us live from the New York Stock Exchange. The last time we saw you was on fn. As you know, unfortunately, fn is not with us anymore but we're lucky because we get you. But we're taking dibs. Is it Haufenreffer? Haffenreffer?

DAVID HAFFENREFFER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'd say Haffenreffer.

PHILLIPS: Haffenreffer. So we were right.

HAFFERNEFFER: My grandfather would have said Haufenreffer.

PHILLIPS: Culturally, we'll just call you Hauf-Haffenreffer.

HAFFENREFFER: that's correct.

HARRIS: Hi, David I'm sorry.

PHILLIPS: I know you want to tell us about some business news.

HAFFENREFFER: Well, holiday shopping. If you are busy or if you are just plain a procrastinator, we have some good news for you out there. Tomorrow is the very big day for many retailers and a big day for shoppers too. The Saturday before Christmas is traditionally the busiest shopping day of the year. And if you put off your shopping until the final week, you might find some big discounts and extended hours. Get this. Here's your list. Sears plans a 7:00 a.m. opening on Saturday and it's offering an early bird special, a $10 gift card for the first 100 shoppers at each store.

JCPenney is launching what it calls a 17-hour blowout with stores opening from 7:00 a.m. to midnight. And Ann Taylor is taking 40 percent off all of its cashmere items. Stores just might get the last-minute shopping frenzy that they are hoping for. According to the National Retail Federation, only 46 percent of shoppers say they are done buying gifts. How about you two?

PHILLIPS: Wal-Mart is getting into the competition, too.

HARRIS: I need a break. Is Wal-Mart offering any kind of discounts? Oh, that would be lovely.

HAFFENREFFER: If you ask them, I'm sure they'll say they are offering discounts every day. You guys might recall, Target had banned, Target, this is Wal-Mart's big competitor out there. Target had banned Salvation Army bell ringers from its premises earlier this year due to a companywide non-solicitation policy that they say just simply applied to everybody.

Now rival Wal-Mart has agreed to match customers' red kettle donations, up to a total of $1 million. Now the clock started on Thursday. And will match, the match itself will run through Christmas Eve. As for the rest of the marketplace today, stocks are edging lower on Pfizer's announcement about safety concerns for its drug Celebrex. Pfizer is sliding more than $3. The Dow industrials down 22 points. We have seen an improvement in the Dow over the past hour or so as we get closer to the closing bell. Nasdaq Composite slightly to the down side. That's the latest from Wall Street. Kyra and Tony, back to you.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, David.

Questions about the side effects of yet another popular prescription drug.

HARRIS: Pfizer is not the only drug company to face this problem. In the next half hour of LIVE FROM, why it takes time recognize the warning signs.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired December 17, 2004 - 14:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR, LIVE FROM: Welcome back, everyone. From the CNN center in Atlanta, this is "LIVE FROM." I'm Tony Harris in for Miles O'Brien.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR, LIVE FROM: I'm Kyra Phillip. Here's what's happening now in the news.

HARRIS: The 9/11 intelligence reform bill is now law. After much controversy, President Bush finally signed the bill into law today. He says the law will help the government protect the American people. The measure is the largest overhaul of the nation's intelligence system since 1947.

The highest court in Kansas rules the state's death penalty unconstitutional. Kansas supreme court justices ruled the current law violates the eighth and 14th amendments. The justices say they'll leave it to the Kansas legislature to make the law constitutional. The decision will affect five death penalty cases.

Problems with a popular painkiller. Drug company Pfizer says Celebrex can increase cardiovascular risk. It released data today from a long-term cancer study. Pfizer's CEO says the findings on Celebrex were unexpected. However, the company says it will not pull Celebrex off the market.

PHILLIPS: Some undiplomatic decorations in Cuba just before Christmas. The Cuban government has placed huge billboards showing photos of abused Iraqi prisoners and a swastika across from the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana. This happened after the mission placed a large 75 among its Christmas decorations. That number represents the total of dissidents imprisoned by Fidel Castro last year. CNN's Havana bureau chief Lucia Newman joins us now live by phone with more. First of all, tell us about the controversy this is creating Lucia and then I want to get to the dissidents.

LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon Kyra. Indeed. Well, President Fidel Castro had warned earlier this week that there would be consequences, as he called it, if the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana didn't remove that symbol of the 75 Cuban dissidents from the front lawn of its intersection. This morning, the consequences were graphically displayed along Havana's famous (INAUDIBLE) boulevard which faces that intersection. The graphic posters and banners of the Iraqi prisoners in U.S. custody at Abu Ghraib, also the symbols of swastikas, of fascists and the words made in the USA. All this of course Kyra is meant to say or the message at least is that Washington has no moral authority to talk about political prisoners and human rights at least not to the Cubans, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: That's just a nasty back and forth. Look Lucia, we've been talking so much about the number 75 and how this all started. Can you just brief me on the dissidents and kind of give me an update on who some of these individuals are. Have any of them been released since they were imprisoned?

NEWMAN: OK. About 20 months ago, you may recall, the government made a huge crackdown on the opposition. It imprisoned the 75 dissidents. Among them opposition journalists, human rights activists, promoters of the Varella (ph) project, which is an attempt to bring about some peaceful reforms here in this country. One of them, for example, Ricardo Garcia, was given a 20-year prison sentence for publishing an opposition magazine. The first opposition magazine in fact that's been published here in 45 years since President Castro took power. Now 15 of those dissidents, mostly people that are very, very ill and elderly have been released in the last month.

This has been seen, first of all as an attempt to make sure that nobody dies who is very ill in prison and also, as a way to appease the European Union, which has been clamoring and demanding that Cuba release some or all, in fact, of these political prisoners, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, it just leads me to ask you, I wonder what's next. Do you think this back and forth is going to continue? Are these billboards and these decorations going to have to come down at any time? I understand the mission says, forget it. We're leaving the decorations up through Christmas.

NEWMAN: Absolutely, Kyra. It's getting ugly. That's all I can say. People are already taking bets about which side is going to take down its display first. And I guess all I can say is that this all seems to summarize just what U.S. diplomatic relations have been reduced to, at least this year and it's not -- doesn't bode very well for what's going to come in the new year either, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. We'll continue to check in with you. Lucia Newman, live there from Havana Cuba. Thank you so much. Tony.

HARRIS: A look at other news around the world now. An update on Viktor Yushchenko. Scientists say the Ukrainian presidential candidate was poisoned with the most harmful known dioxin called TCDD. Blood tests reveal the poison was pure TCDD and that it could have come from a government biological weapons unit.

In the Mideast, an Israeli raid on a Gaza refugee camp leaves at least six Palestinians dead and 24 others wounded. The raid was in retaliation for Palestinian mortar attacks.

And in an amicable move, Israel allows Palestinian rescue teams to dig in a prohibited area to save people trapped in a collapsed tunnel. Palestinians say five people were in the tunnel near Gaza's border with Egypt. It's believed the tunnel was used for smuggling. PHILLIPS: Up next, his tale is one of football glory, drug dependency, redemption and lottery luck.

HARRIS: I will talk with Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson about his amazing life on and off the gridiron.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ORELON SIDNEY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I'm Orelon Sidney. Here's a look at your weekend forecast starting off on Saturday with snowfall through much of the Great Lakes down into the Appalachians. Most of this in the south is going to be rain but don't look now. Colder air is going to work down from Canada blasting through the Midwest into the deep south on Sunday. You may find snow as far south as northern Georgia. You will also continue to see windy conditions in the west due to the Santa Ana winds. So despite the cold air in the east, it's going to be warm out to the west. Minneapolis, enjoy your Saturday, a high of 7 on Sunday.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, you are probably spending more money this month than you normally do on holiday gifts or a plane ticket home to be with your family. While you are plunking down the plastic and thinking of next month's bills, you might be thinking, wouldn't it be great if I were lucky enough to win the lottery? Big jackpots make all of us dream big. So it caught our attention this week when the wife of a winner of one of the biggest single lottery jackpots ever awarded said she wished she had torn up that ticket.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS (voice-over): Think this man's lucky? Since he pocketed $113 million, West Virginia lottery winner Jack Whitaker has been arrested twice for drunk driving. Ordered into rehab, his car, office and home have been broken into several times, and his granddaughter has disappeared.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Disgusted with all that's happened.

PHILLIPS: Whitaker's wife said she wishes they'd never cashed in the ticket.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So it's just been more of a burden on her than a blessing?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It certainly has.

PHILLIPS: In October, luck ran out for 32-year-old Rick Camat. He was one of 13 Starbucks employees in Los Angeles who shared an $87 million California lottery jackpot in 2000. Camat was shot to death by police outside a bar in Seattle. Police say he brandished a gun, fired it at a car and also pointed it at officers.

Just last month in New York, parking attendant Juan Rodriguez took home the biggest single jackpot in New York state history. His wife has now filed for divorce and is asking for a slice of the pie. Rodriguez tells the "New York Post" he lives in fear that his family in Colombia will be targeted by kidnappers.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Hollywood is here. While those guys were anxious about bad luck after winning the lottery, we found a guy turning his life around for the better after winning the jackpot. Remember Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson, the first round draft pick of the Dallas Cowboys, star linebacker? He was in prison for a 1983 drug charge. His luck changed. He got sober, got out of prison and won the Texas lottery and he's written about his life in a new book "In control, the rebirth of an NFL Legend." He joins us now to talk about, Hollywood, good to see you.

THOMAS "HOLLYWOOD" HENDERSON, FORMER NFL PLAYER: I am glad to be here.

HARRIS: How long sober now?

HENDERSON: 21 years this past November 8th.

HARRIS: Show the ring. Show the bling.

HENDERSON: That's the sober bowl ring.

HARRIS: Sober bowl ring.

HENDERSON: This is super bowl.

HARRIS: What year? What year?

HENDERSON: '77.

HARRIS: '77.

HENDERSON: Yes. This one is 1983, when I started to change my life.

HARRIS: Now we got to talk about the guy you were, the player you were. First of all the player you were. We've been saying around here that you were Deion (ph) Sanders before Deion Sanders and that says a couple of things. First of all, your incredible skill level as an athlete.

HENDERSON: Yes.

HARRIS: Talk about you as a player, strong, fast, inside linebacker or outside?

HENDERSON: Outside linebacker.

HARRIS: OK. And talk about yourself as a player. How fast were you?

HENDERSON: Ran a 100-yard dash in 9.4. (INAUDIBLE) 4.4. But I was running in grass and gravel. They are running -- now they got rubber bands on them.

HARRIS: Oh, my goodness. But you were also flamboyant. Is that fair?

HENDERSON: Very fair. Came out of an historically black college and was trash talking, loved the game.

HARRIS: Yeah.

HENDERSON: Loved to play football with all my heart.

HARRIS: OK.

HENDERSON: Didn't like the business of football, but loved the game.

HARRIS: Why did your life go south? You had it all. I mean, you had a nice contract. You didn't come from much and you got a nice paycheck when you go in.

HENDERSON: Everything I wanted, but nothing I needed, didn't know how to live. I thought life was a party, went to Hollywood. Got me some cocaine and some champagne and a bunch of girls, and just went crazy.

HARRIS: And you wrote about that in your first book, didn't you?

HENDERSON: Went crazy on cocaine and crack, got in trouble. Did some time in jail. 1986, I walked out of prison in California and as a clean and sober man. And decided that I was, no matter what happened, I was going to stay clean. A doctor said, anything is possible in recovery, in sobriety. Nothing is possible if you get high. I took that advice and I've been doing that for 21 years.

HARRIS: And what did you do in those interim years -- say what '86 you got out of prison.

HENDERSON: Yes.

HARRIS: What have you been doing?

HENDERSON: I have been a public speaker. I have made seven films that are in most rehabs and prisons in the country. Every drunk driving program has a film of me.

HARRIS: So you turned it into something positive.

HENDERSON: Alcohol and drug programs across the country I've worked for since '86.

HARRIS: OK, tell us why you -- as we are seeing you up here, what's your message? When you go in, as we look at a clip from the film, what's your message when you go in and you talk to kids and inmates?

HENDERSON: Sobriety is an option. That's for kids who never start. For those who in it, rethink the relationship you are having with alcohol. Why did you start it? Why do you maintain it? What is it doing for you? Is it working? Have you lost your family, your job, your career as a result of a relationship with alcohol and drugs? So I take it there as a choice. I don't say nobody can. Some people can go have a bottle of wine with their fish and their steak and people like me need a keg.

HARRIS: "In Control, the Rebirth of an NFL Legend." Why did you write this book?

HENDERSON: At 16 years clean, I won a $28 million lottery.

HARRIS: Let's say that again.

HENDERSON: At 16 years clean --

HARRIS: $28 million lottery.

HENDERSON: I thought, Thomas, you got 15 minutes of fame. What are you going to do with it? I did nothing with it. So I waited until I was 20 years clean to start this book. This book is about recovery. I think it's -- if you gave it to somebody you loved and care about who had an alcohol and drug problem, I think it's a gentle intervention. It's like, here, read this crazy book about Hollywood. And I think that there will be a word or sentence or paragraph in this book that could change someone's life. And so if you like to make this gift to someone you love and care about, go to amazon.com and get in control for someone you love and care about. Somebody you are worried about and you're thinking about this Christmas holiday who has begun that relationship with alcohol, who is maintaining that relationship with alcohol and drugs and who may be on their way to a bad place.

HARRIS: You like where you are now in your life? You better for everything?

HENDERSON: Hey, man, I got two grandchildren. I have two children. I'm a grandfather. I'm 51 -- I got a letter from AARP. I got a letter from AARP. I got a letter from AARP.

HARRIS: Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson? Not Hollywood.

HENDERSON: Hollywood got a letter from AARP. The difference between me and Deion Sanders is that I hit. Let's lay it out there.

PHILLIPS: I don't want to get anywhere around that ring when he hits.

HARRIS: You can't do it.

PHILLIPS: The sober bowl or the super bowl. Just don't punch me with one of those rings.

HARRIS: One football question, who do you like this year? Got to ask a football question.

HENDERSON: I really like Pittsburgh for some reason. You know, they were my big east.

HARRIS: Didn't they beat you guys?

HENDERSON: They beat us. They got all the breaks.

HARRIS: They got all the breaks?

HENDERSON: I played good that day. But it's a team sport.

HARRIS: Hollywood, good to see you.

HENDERSON: My pleasure. Thank you for having me on CNN.

HARRIS: It is good to see you, man. Someone who watched you play and enjoyed.

HENDERSON: For your audience, anybody out there, doesn't matter who you are, why don't you rethink your relationship with alcohol and other substances. Wonder why you started and why you are still keeping it up and is it working for you in your life?

HARRIS: Wonderful. Good to see you. Happy holidays.

PHILLIPS: Thank you. Especially when you got the athletes throwing punches, you know, getting arrested. All these negative stories you've been talking about with athletes. Finally, thank you, so much, steroids, everything else. It's great to hear your story.

HENDERSON: Thank you.

HARRIS: Thanks, Hollywood.

HENDERSON: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: All right. Are you waiting until the last minute to finish your holiday shopping?

HARRIS: Boy, your bank account may be thanking you. After the break, how some stores are rewarding shopping procrastinators.

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HARRIS: Don't they have a bowl game? I am trying to remember if the Longhorns have a bowl game. OK, as far as holiday shopping goes, the early bird doesn't always get the worm. Some last minute shoppers might luck out as retailers boost perks to lure shoppers.

PHILLIPS: David, he joins us live from the New York Stock Exchange. The last time we saw you was on fn. As you know, unfortunately, fn is not with us anymore but we're lucky because we get you. But we're taking dibs. Is it Haufenreffer? Haffenreffer?

DAVID HAFFENREFFER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'd say Haffenreffer.

PHILLIPS: Haffenreffer. So we were right.

HAFFERNEFFER: My grandfather would have said Haufenreffer.

PHILLIPS: Culturally, we'll just call you Hauf-Haffenreffer.

HAFFENREFFER: that's correct.

HARRIS: Hi, David I'm sorry.

PHILLIPS: I know you want to tell us about some business news.

HAFFENREFFER: Well, holiday shopping. If you are busy or if you are just plain a procrastinator, we have some good news for you out there. Tomorrow is the very big day for many retailers and a big day for shoppers too. The Saturday before Christmas is traditionally the busiest shopping day of the year. And if you put off your shopping until the final week, you might find some big discounts and extended hours. Get this. Here's your list. Sears plans a 7:00 a.m. opening on Saturday and it's offering an early bird special, a $10 gift card for the first 100 shoppers at each store.

JCPenney is launching what it calls a 17-hour blowout with stores opening from 7:00 a.m. to midnight. And Ann Taylor is taking 40 percent off all of its cashmere items. Stores just might get the last-minute shopping frenzy that they are hoping for. According to the National Retail Federation, only 46 percent of shoppers say they are done buying gifts. How about you two?

PHILLIPS: Wal-Mart is getting into the competition, too.

HARRIS: I need a break. Is Wal-Mart offering any kind of discounts? Oh, that would be lovely.

HAFFENREFFER: If you ask them, I'm sure they'll say they are offering discounts every day. You guys might recall, Target had banned, Target, this is Wal-Mart's big competitor out there. Target had banned Salvation Army bell ringers from its premises earlier this year due to a companywide non-solicitation policy that they say just simply applied to everybody.

Now rival Wal-Mart has agreed to match customers' red kettle donations, up to a total of $1 million. Now the clock started on Thursday. And will match, the match itself will run through Christmas Eve. As for the rest of the marketplace today, stocks are edging lower on Pfizer's announcement about safety concerns for its drug Celebrex. Pfizer is sliding more than $3. The Dow industrials down 22 points. We have seen an improvement in the Dow over the past hour or so as we get closer to the closing bell. Nasdaq Composite slightly to the down side. That's the latest from Wall Street. Kyra and Tony, back to you.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, David.

Questions about the side effects of yet another popular prescription drug.

HARRIS: Pfizer is not the only drug company to face this problem. In the next half hour of LIVE FROM, why it takes time recognize the warning signs.

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