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Rice Confirmed; At Least 10 Killed in California Passenger Train Collision

Aired January 26, 2005 - 13:30   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.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Live pictures now once again from our affiliate KCAL. You're looking at Glendale, California. This is the train derailment we've been reporting on throughout the day. The two crowded commuter trains, the car on the tracks, and the parked locomotive. Well, you asked about the car on the tracks. This is what we know. Chief Randy Adams, Glendale Police chief, now tells us, well, he reports, first of all, the death count is at 10, more than 100 people injured. But that car on the track apparently was a man attempting suicide. He came on to the tracks, decided at the last minute he didn't want to commit suicide, left the car there, now you're seeing the aftermath of what has happened. That suspect, now in custody. A homicide investigation under way.
Just moments ago, L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca talked to reporters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEE BACA, L.A. COUNTY SHERIFF: The people who ride trains to Los Angeles deserve better than this, that there is a vulnerability that sadly has occurred and shown itself here, that an individual that can deliberately put their car on the tracks, cause a train derailment, affect the lives of hundreds of people, and in effect, kill people. And this is a tragedy that we will continually mourn, because we know that the people on those trains are one of our most precious resources, because they're coming to work, they're involved in making...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Once again, that was L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca. And the man attempting suicide, according to the Glendale police chief, he is in custody. We'll bring you more information as we get it -- Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: After long and sometimes contentious hearings and debate, Condoleezza Rice is now confirmed as secretary of state. Today that Senate handedly voted confirm Rice 85-13. Outside of the Senate, a strong voice of support came from at least one Democrat, former U.N. ambassador and former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young. HE joins us now.

You went to Washington yesterday to voice your support. Good to have you with us. Why is Condoleezza Rice a good choice, in your mind? ANDREW YOUNG, FMR. U.S. AMB. TO U.N.: She's a good choice because she's got the president's confidence, and she has lived through the agonies of the last four years, and another eight years with the previous President Bush. So she's got the experience that we need in that position.

O'BRIEN: Some of the statements that were made about her, pretty (INAUDIBLE), they really were, calling her a liar at times.

YOUNG: And what my Democratic friends forgot was that the election was over in November. Now, the only battle is between Bush and the bandits. And in this one, you've got to be with Bush.

Now when it comes to Social Security, when it comes to health care, when it comes to dealing with the deficit, I'm with my friends in the Democratic Party.

But right now, they are not saying anything particularly relevant. This war is not between Democrats and Republicans. It's between the forces of Democratic choice and forces of destruction and evil.

O'BRIEN: Do you think this could, potentially, backfire on Democrats, particularly when you consider African-Americans are a core constituency in the Democratic Party?

YOUNG: Well, I think it's one of many things that might backfire on Democrats. One, though, I think overwhelmingly the Democratic leadership, while they might endorse Condoleezza Rice, would still have great problems with President Bush's administration. So until there's some way to deal with the economy of the poor, it's hard for any of us to be Republicans.

But in foreign affairs, we should not be either Democrat or Republican; we should be bipartisan Americans. And if we made mistakes, and we did, we can't go back -- I mean, Colin Powell was right, we broke it we got to fix it. We own it, until we fix it. The election, I think, will fix it, at least it will begin the process. And we say, will the election work? Well, nobody's shooting at us, and only 25 percent of our population votes. I guarantee you, more Iraqis will vote than that.

O'BRIEN: So you really do think this could be a success, and could launch them down the road?

YOUNG: No it will be a success.

O'BRIEN: Really?

YOUNG: I mean, the Shiites are going to vote. It's very much in their interest to vote. The Kurds are going to vote, see. You've got this little group of Sunnis in the middle. And if they don't vote, they have less voice to say in their constitution. The only hope for the Sunni minority is to develop a free and fair confusion constitution that protects their minority rights.

O'BRIEN: So they don't want to be the odd person out in this case.

YOUNG: They should not, but that's what Democrats should be saying. We should be talking to the Sunni minority, and say, wait a minute, this is a democracy now, you cannot prevail by force, you're going to have to get into this battle, and if you're going to win anything, you have to win it in constitution writing.

O'BRIEN: There's a lot of people in and outside the beltway who would say what we just witnessed with the Democrats and the type of debate there really indicates that your party has lost its way. Would you go along with that?

YOUNG: I would say joyful amen.

O'BRIEN: Really?

YOUNG: And one of the things -- we've lost the way largely because we stopped listening to the black community. Jimmy Carter got elected because the people who were suffering most, the minorities, had a clear voice in his campaign. They had a clear voice in Bill Clinton's campaign. They had a limited voice in Al Gore's campaign, and limited voice in Kerry's campaign.

And anytime there's a Democrat that doesn't have a strong voice in the decision making. When the decisions are made in the middle of the night, if there's nobody black in the room, they're going to lose. Whether we vote for them or not, they made dumb mistakes. It wasn't that we didn't support the party. We supported the party overwhelmingly. But they didn't use our insights in how we can mobilize the black community to influence the university community, the liberal community, the labor movement. We're a minority, but because we sufferer the problems most acutely, our voice has the most authenticity.

When you get a John Kerry who really has never had a problem of, you know, getting something to eat or getting an education. He never had to have a job, really, hardly. Or Al Gore, they were out of touch.

O'BRIEN: Ambassador Andrew Young, an authentic voice, indeed. Thank you for your thoughts. Appreciate it -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Straight ahead, more news you can use. Just ahead on LIVE FROM, NFL superstar Joe Theismann in the house to talk career highlights, preview the Super Bowl and pass along important health advice no man should ignore.

Looking pretty good there. That's some old video there, pal. Talk about archive video.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: McDonald's, we're talking that, too. A multimillion dollar lawsuit not so funny, linking the fast-food giant to obesity, it's on again. And inner secrets of the McNugget may soon be revealed. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: In 1999 a little boy found clinging to an innertube off the Florida coast was one of three survivors of a group of Cuban rafters in sent of freedom. As part of CNN's anniversary series, "Then and Now," we take a look back at the international custody battle over Elian Gonzalez.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Who can forget the face of 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez when federal agents snatched him out of his Miami relatives' home in a predawn raid.

The most politicized custody battle of the century made the little Cuban rafter boy, whose mother drowned at sea, a poster child on both sides of the Florida Straits.

After a nine-month tug-of-war, Elian was returned to the custody of his father and sent back to communist Cuba.

Today, back in his hometown of Cardenas (ph), Elian look like any normal 11-year-old. He goes to school, and lives in a bigger house with his father, two half-brothers and his stepmother, whom he now calls mom. But Elian isn't like other boys. President Fidel Castro goes to his birthday party at school, and you often see him in the front row next to the communist leader at special functions. All tell-tale signs that no matter how much he may want to be like everyone else, Elian Gonzalez remains a political symbol, even today.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: We're causing way too much trouble. Now here on LIVE FROM, it's a sports show now, I guess, for the next few minutes, anyway. Even though the non-football fans among you can't help but know the Super Bowl is upon us again. New England, Philadelphia. In case you're a Packer fan, yes, New England, Philadelphia. February 6th in Jacksonville is the date.

And that's not only NFL chatter in the news today. A certain hall of famer bridesmaid has left Canton at altar. Let's talk about all this stuff and more with the guy we'd love as an official LIVE FROM NFL correspondent, but I think he has another job. Even though we can't pay him, of course.

Legendary Redskins' quarterback Joe Theismann. Joe, great to have you here.

JOE THEISMANN, SUPER BOWL CHAMPION QB: Thanks, Kyra, I appreciate it.

PHILLIPS: All right, I know we're going to get down to serious business first. Talk about E.P. in America. That's really why you're here. But we want to talk Super Bowl, too. THEISMANN: Absolutely. I think we'll get to the football part of it. But it's very important that people understand that enlarged prostates are a problem in this country. I'm on a campaign called E.P. in America, I'm the national spokesman for them. What I want to do is I want men over 50 to get yourself to the doctor, go out and check and make sure that you can get taken care of about.

50 percent of men over 50 have an enlarged prostate. 90 percent of men over 80 have an enlarged prostate. I was diagnosed with one in my last physical. I also found out that I could take a medication that could actually shrink the prostate. For information, as far as symptoms go, getting up and having to pee in the middle of the night two and three times. That's one of them.

PHILLIPS: This is not an easy thing to talk about.

THEISMANN: It's not.

PHILLIPS: I mean, here you are, a macho football player and you told me, men don't like to talk about this stuff.

THEISMANN: They don't like to go to the doctors, they don't like to talk about it. But to me it's important. It's important that guys go out there and get themselves checked out and take care of themselves. For information, you just go to our Web site, which is prostatecare.com. It will tell you a lot more about it. And I think it's important that men go out and get themselves taken care of, and the spouses and the kids encourage your husband, encourage that man in your life to go get himself checked out and taken care of.

PHILLIPS: All right. Now let's talk something that men and women love to talk about. Football.

THEISMANN: Yes, they do.

PHILLIPS: All right. Take me back for a moment. You're a quarterback, it's the Super Bowl. It's the day. Tell me about your crazy superstitions, your traditions, take me back to the mindset of when it was the day.

THEISMANN: I had a ton of superstitions. First of all, I never slept well. As a matter of fact, I spent two hours on the phone with a friend of mine, Burt Reynolds, the night before our first Super Bowl.

PHILLIPS: I wouldn't sleep well anywhere after talking to him.

THEISMANN: Well, Burt and I talked -- he loved football. We'd talk about football. We went over a lot of different things. And then all of a sudden, I got up real early that morning, like, you know, 6:30, 7:00, which was out on the West Coast, because we were playing in Pasadena, walked around the hotel we were at, couldn't wait to get to breakfast. Laid around, got more and more tired through the course of the day. Finally, you get on the bus. And as you get on the bus and you start to head towards the stadium, it starts to become the reality of the Super Bowl. Everything has been hype and talk. Now all of a sudden, you're there, you're getting dressed. And to me, the most important thing to me is I was introduced and I ran out on the field. The one thing I said to myself, don't trip. Don't trip in front of all of these millions of people and look like a blundering idiot, running out over -- trip over a hash mark, trip over the goal line. Once I got through introductions, I was fine. It was just getting out on the field was the big thing.

PHILLIPS: All right. So let's look at the quarterbacks. Let's look at Philly, let's look at New England, let's talk about these guys. Who do you think -- who's got the strengths, who's got the weaknesses? Who do you think's the better QB?

THEISMANN: I think both of them are terrific. I think both of them are Pro Bowlers. Tom Brady probably doesn't get as much credit because he doesn't run around, he just operates from the pocket. And he hasn't posted the numbers that Peyton Manning has so they automatically say, well, OK, Peyton's a pocket guy. But Tom does everything well. If you make a list up of what Tom Brady does well and then next to it make a list of things that Tom Brady doesn't do well, the doesn't doesn't have much on it.

PHILLIPS: But he's kind of the all-American guy, too, though, right?

THEISMANN: He's everything. He's got it all going for him. I call him Huck Finn. He's just riding on a raft, having the best time of his life. Donovan McNabb, on the other hand, doesn't get credit enough for being a great quarterback. Terrific athlete. Makes plays with his legs more than Tom does. Runs a very complex system, understands it very well.

And I do believe that the burden of responsibility for the Eagles to win -- and he's going to have to make plays like we're seeing, running around, making people miss, is on Donovan McNabb. If he plays well, they certainly have a chance. If he doesn't play well, I don't think they stand a chance at all.

PHILLIPS: Now Philly's the underdog, right?

THEISMANN: Yes they are.

PHILLIPS: Because New England has done so well for the past what, three...

THEISMANN: There have 11 underdogs in the 38 previous Super Bowls, I believe, that have actually won. So there is the possibility that an underdog could win this ball game.

PHILLIPS: So at work are you guys all taking bets? Do you have, like, a pool that you're...

THEISMANN: No, we don't -- I don't gamble. I'm in the football business. I don't gamble. I think the number's very interesting, though, that's out there, as far as differential for the teams goes. If you're the Philadelphia Eagles, you feel good about this. You're saying to yourself, hey, look, nobody thinks we can win, anyway. So let's go enjoy ourselves and let's just go play. If anybody has pressure, it's the New England Patriots. They've been there before. They've done it before. So, they're the ones that have to show up. And the expectations are tremendous for them.

PHILLIPS: All right. The guys in the control room want to know if you brought a football. Can you pass it around the newsroom?

THEISMANN: I think we can find one.

PHILLIPS: We could use Miles'. Miles is pretty good...

O'BRIEN: I always have one lying around, yes, absolutely.

PHILLIPS: Great to see you.

THEISMANN: Thank you for having me. Appreciate it.

PHILLIPS: Thanks for being here.

THEISMANN: Thanks an awful lot.

PHILLIPS: OK.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Checking health news now, no surprise that obese moms tend to have obese children. But remarkable findings are out on how many of these children end up obese and when they start putting on the pounds. Joining me with details, CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen.

Hello, Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello. Miles, it starts younger than you think. When a parent is obese or when both parents are obese the children tend to be obese and it starts at a younger age than doctors had previously thought -- or that some of them had previously thought.

Doctors took a look at a group of obese moms and compared them to moms who were not obese. And what they found is that at age 2 there was really no difference between the children of the moms who were obese and the children who weren't. But at age 4, at just age 4, they started seeing that the children with obese mothers were more likely to be overweight and in fact, by age 6, those children were 15 times more likely to be overweight and had doubled the body fat compared to children whose mothers were not obese.

The bottom line of this study, according to the study authors, is that programs that are aimed to help fight childhood obesity, one, need to start at a young age, and two, need to take the parents into consideration.

O'BRIEN: All right. Well, yes. And there's all of those nature versus nurture issues, is it genetic or is it just the fact that what is served in the house tends to make people obese. How do we know?

COHEN: It's both. I mean, they haven't completely teased it out, but they really think that both things are coming into play. First of all, genetics, your genes say a lot about what happens when you eat food. Do you put it on as fat? Do you burn it? What about your metabolic rate? A lot of that is genetic.

In fact, adopted kids seem to have more of a weight resemblance to their genetic parents than they do to the people who adopted them. However, in addition, lifestyle does matter. For example, if you eat large portions at home, guess what, your kids are likely to eat large portions at home. If you're inactive, it's likely that your children will be inactive. So both matter.

O'BRIEN: Yes, it's really hard to kind of sort that one out. And I guess a question that might come up in a lot of people's minds is what about obese dads? Do they have the same impact on their children?

COHEN: That's right. This group they were looking at the mothers, and the findings with the fathers were a little bit murky. But other studies have found that the dads do matter. What other studies have found is that if you have one obese parent, the child has a 30 percent increased risk of becoming obese. If the child has two obese parents, they have a 70 percent increased risk of becoming obese. So those numbers are huge. They really a say lot.

Now if you're interested in how to keep your child from becoming obese, first of all, obviously you need to watch your own habits. And for the child, limit TV watching to one to two hours a day. No TV in the child's room. That will make them just sit in their room and watch TV. No more than one fast-food meal per week. Exercise at least one to two hours per day. Limit juice intake to one cup daily. That's so important. People think, oh juice, it's juice, we can drink a whole lot of it. But it...

O'BRIEN: It's sugar.

COHEN: But it's a lot of sugar, a lot of calories in that juice. And no soda. Just don't even bother with the soda. No redeeming nutrient value.

O'BRIEN: All that sounds great, but it's hard for parents because you're talking about a lot of things that get you through the day, a little TV time, soda here and there.

COHEN: That's right. And also things that you've done as a parent, I mean, things that are a part of your life. So you have to change your life to be a good example, that's hard.

O'BRIEN: That's it, we have to change our lives first.

COHEN: But Miles, you're not obese, you're doing OK.

O'BRIEN: OK. Well, I could stand to lose a little. All right -- Kyra. (STOCK MARKET REPORT)

O'BRIEN: All right. Coming up in our second hour of LIVE FROM, a columnist tells all. She admits to taking cash from the Bush administration.

PHILLIPS: Also, it's cold as hell, I guess hell has -- all right, I get it now.

O'BRIEN: Hull has frozen over.

PHILLIPS: Thank you. I should have read this before, get it? Hence the picture.

O'BRIEN: Massachusetts Bay...

PHILLIPS: A Massachusetts torning (ph) the ice following a weekend storm. LIVE FROM's "hour of power" begins right after this. Hopefully I can pronounce everything right.

O'BRIEN: You're a Hull of an anchor.

PHILLIPS: Oh!

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired January 26, 2005 - 13:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Live pictures now once again from our affiliate KCAL. You're looking at Glendale, California. This is the train derailment we've been reporting on throughout the day. The two crowded commuter trains, the car on the tracks, and the parked locomotive. Well, you asked about the car on the tracks. This is what we know. Chief Randy Adams, Glendale Police chief, now tells us, well, he reports, first of all, the death count is at 10, more than 100 people injured. But that car on the track apparently was a man attempting suicide. He came on to the tracks, decided at the last minute he didn't want to commit suicide, left the car there, now you're seeing the aftermath of what has happened. That suspect, now in custody. A homicide investigation under way.
Just moments ago, L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca talked to reporters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEE BACA, L.A. COUNTY SHERIFF: The people who ride trains to Los Angeles deserve better than this, that there is a vulnerability that sadly has occurred and shown itself here, that an individual that can deliberately put their car on the tracks, cause a train derailment, affect the lives of hundreds of people, and in effect, kill people. And this is a tragedy that we will continually mourn, because we know that the people on those trains are one of our most precious resources, because they're coming to work, they're involved in making...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Once again, that was L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca. And the man attempting suicide, according to the Glendale police chief, he is in custody. We'll bring you more information as we get it -- Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: After long and sometimes contentious hearings and debate, Condoleezza Rice is now confirmed as secretary of state. Today that Senate handedly voted confirm Rice 85-13. Outside of the Senate, a strong voice of support came from at least one Democrat, former U.N. ambassador and former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young. HE joins us now.

You went to Washington yesterday to voice your support. Good to have you with us. Why is Condoleezza Rice a good choice, in your mind? ANDREW YOUNG, FMR. U.S. AMB. TO U.N.: She's a good choice because she's got the president's confidence, and she has lived through the agonies of the last four years, and another eight years with the previous President Bush. So she's got the experience that we need in that position.

O'BRIEN: Some of the statements that were made about her, pretty (INAUDIBLE), they really were, calling her a liar at times.

YOUNG: And what my Democratic friends forgot was that the election was over in November. Now, the only battle is between Bush and the bandits. And in this one, you've got to be with Bush.

Now when it comes to Social Security, when it comes to health care, when it comes to dealing with the deficit, I'm with my friends in the Democratic Party.

But right now, they are not saying anything particularly relevant. This war is not between Democrats and Republicans. It's between the forces of Democratic choice and forces of destruction and evil.

O'BRIEN: Do you think this could, potentially, backfire on Democrats, particularly when you consider African-Americans are a core constituency in the Democratic Party?

YOUNG: Well, I think it's one of many things that might backfire on Democrats. One, though, I think overwhelmingly the Democratic leadership, while they might endorse Condoleezza Rice, would still have great problems with President Bush's administration. So until there's some way to deal with the economy of the poor, it's hard for any of us to be Republicans.

But in foreign affairs, we should not be either Democrat or Republican; we should be bipartisan Americans. And if we made mistakes, and we did, we can't go back -- I mean, Colin Powell was right, we broke it we got to fix it. We own it, until we fix it. The election, I think, will fix it, at least it will begin the process. And we say, will the election work? Well, nobody's shooting at us, and only 25 percent of our population votes. I guarantee you, more Iraqis will vote than that.

O'BRIEN: So you really do think this could be a success, and could launch them down the road?

YOUNG: No it will be a success.

O'BRIEN: Really?

YOUNG: I mean, the Shiites are going to vote. It's very much in their interest to vote. The Kurds are going to vote, see. You've got this little group of Sunnis in the middle. And if they don't vote, they have less voice to say in their constitution. The only hope for the Sunni minority is to develop a free and fair confusion constitution that protects their minority rights.

O'BRIEN: So they don't want to be the odd person out in this case.

YOUNG: They should not, but that's what Democrats should be saying. We should be talking to the Sunni minority, and say, wait a minute, this is a democracy now, you cannot prevail by force, you're going to have to get into this battle, and if you're going to win anything, you have to win it in constitution writing.

O'BRIEN: There's a lot of people in and outside the beltway who would say what we just witnessed with the Democrats and the type of debate there really indicates that your party has lost its way. Would you go along with that?

YOUNG: I would say joyful amen.

O'BRIEN: Really?

YOUNG: And one of the things -- we've lost the way largely because we stopped listening to the black community. Jimmy Carter got elected because the people who were suffering most, the minorities, had a clear voice in his campaign. They had a clear voice in Bill Clinton's campaign. They had a limited voice in Al Gore's campaign, and limited voice in Kerry's campaign.

And anytime there's a Democrat that doesn't have a strong voice in the decision making. When the decisions are made in the middle of the night, if there's nobody black in the room, they're going to lose. Whether we vote for them or not, they made dumb mistakes. It wasn't that we didn't support the party. We supported the party overwhelmingly. But they didn't use our insights in how we can mobilize the black community to influence the university community, the liberal community, the labor movement. We're a minority, but because we sufferer the problems most acutely, our voice has the most authenticity.

When you get a John Kerry who really has never had a problem of, you know, getting something to eat or getting an education. He never had to have a job, really, hardly. Or Al Gore, they were out of touch.

O'BRIEN: Ambassador Andrew Young, an authentic voice, indeed. Thank you for your thoughts. Appreciate it -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Straight ahead, more news you can use. Just ahead on LIVE FROM, NFL superstar Joe Theismann in the house to talk career highlights, preview the Super Bowl and pass along important health advice no man should ignore.

Looking pretty good there. That's some old video there, pal. Talk about archive video.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: McDonald's, we're talking that, too. A multimillion dollar lawsuit not so funny, linking the fast-food giant to obesity, it's on again. And inner secrets of the McNugget may soon be revealed. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: In 1999 a little boy found clinging to an innertube off the Florida coast was one of three survivors of a group of Cuban rafters in sent of freedom. As part of CNN's anniversary series, "Then and Now," we take a look back at the international custody battle over Elian Gonzalez.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Who can forget the face of 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez when federal agents snatched him out of his Miami relatives' home in a predawn raid.

The most politicized custody battle of the century made the little Cuban rafter boy, whose mother drowned at sea, a poster child on both sides of the Florida Straits.

After a nine-month tug-of-war, Elian was returned to the custody of his father and sent back to communist Cuba.

Today, back in his hometown of Cardenas (ph), Elian look like any normal 11-year-old. He goes to school, and lives in a bigger house with his father, two half-brothers and his stepmother, whom he now calls mom. But Elian isn't like other boys. President Fidel Castro goes to his birthday party at school, and you often see him in the front row next to the communist leader at special functions. All tell-tale signs that no matter how much he may want to be like everyone else, Elian Gonzalez remains a political symbol, even today.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: We're causing way too much trouble. Now here on LIVE FROM, it's a sports show now, I guess, for the next few minutes, anyway. Even though the non-football fans among you can't help but know the Super Bowl is upon us again. New England, Philadelphia. In case you're a Packer fan, yes, New England, Philadelphia. February 6th in Jacksonville is the date.

And that's not only NFL chatter in the news today. A certain hall of famer bridesmaid has left Canton at altar. Let's talk about all this stuff and more with the guy we'd love as an official LIVE FROM NFL correspondent, but I think he has another job. Even though we can't pay him, of course.

Legendary Redskins' quarterback Joe Theismann. Joe, great to have you here.

JOE THEISMANN, SUPER BOWL CHAMPION QB: Thanks, Kyra, I appreciate it.

PHILLIPS: All right, I know we're going to get down to serious business first. Talk about E.P. in America. That's really why you're here. But we want to talk Super Bowl, too. THEISMANN: Absolutely. I think we'll get to the football part of it. But it's very important that people understand that enlarged prostates are a problem in this country. I'm on a campaign called E.P. in America, I'm the national spokesman for them. What I want to do is I want men over 50 to get yourself to the doctor, go out and check and make sure that you can get taken care of about.

50 percent of men over 50 have an enlarged prostate. 90 percent of men over 80 have an enlarged prostate. I was diagnosed with one in my last physical. I also found out that I could take a medication that could actually shrink the prostate. For information, as far as symptoms go, getting up and having to pee in the middle of the night two and three times. That's one of them.

PHILLIPS: This is not an easy thing to talk about.

THEISMANN: It's not.

PHILLIPS: I mean, here you are, a macho football player and you told me, men don't like to talk about this stuff.

THEISMANN: They don't like to go to the doctors, they don't like to talk about it. But to me it's important. It's important that guys go out there and get themselves checked out and take care of themselves. For information, you just go to our Web site, which is prostatecare.com. It will tell you a lot more about it. And I think it's important that men go out and get themselves taken care of, and the spouses and the kids encourage your husband, encourage that man in your life to go get himself checked out and taken care of.

PHILLIPS: All right. Now let's talk something that men and women love to talk about. Football.

THEISMANN: Yes, they do.

PHILLIPS: All right. Take me back for a moment. You're a quarterback, it's the Super Bowl. It's the day. Tell me about your crazy superstitions, your traditions, take me back to the mindset of when it was the day.

THEISMANN: I had a ton of superstitions. First of all, I never slept well. As a matter of fact, I spent two hours on the phone with a friend of mine, Burt Reynolds, the night before our first Super Bowl.

PHILLIPS: I wouldn't sleep well anywhere after talking to him.

THEISMANN: Well, Burt and I talked -- he loved football. We'd talk about football. We went over a lot of different things. And then all of a sudden, I got up real early that morning, like, you know, 6:30, 7:00, which was out on the West Coast, because we were playing in Pasadena, walked around the hotel we were at, couldn't wait to get to breakfast. Laid around, got more and more tired through the course of the day. Finally, you get on the bus. And as you get on the bus and you start to head towards the stadium, it starts to become the reality of the Super Bowl. Everything has been hype and talk. Now all of a sudden, you're there, you're getting dressed. And to me, the most important thing to me is I was introduced and I ran out on the field. The one thing I said to myself, don't trip. Don't trip in front of all of these millions of people and look like a blundering idiot, running out over -- trip over a hash mark, trip over the goal line. Once I got through introductions, I was fine. It was just getting out on the field was the big thing.

PHILLIPS: All right. So let's look at the quarterbacks. Let's look at Philly, let's look at New England, let's talk about these guys. Who do you think -- who's got the strengths, who's got the weaknesses? Who do you think's the better QB?

THEISMANN: I think both of them are terrific. I think both of them are Pro Bowlers. Tom Brady probably doesn't get as much credit because he doesn't run around, he just operates from the pocket. And he hasn't posted the numbers that Peyton Manning has so they automatically say, well, OK, Peyton's a pocket guy. But Tom does everything well. If you make a list up of what Tom Brady does well and then next to it make a list of things that Tom Brady doesn't do well, the doesn't doesn't have much on it.

PHILLIPS: But he's kind of the all-American guy, too, though, right?

THEISMANN: He's everything. He's got it all going for him. I call him Huck Finn. He's just riding on a raft, having the best time of his life. Donovan McNabb, on the other hand, doesn't get credit enough for being a great quarterback. Terrific athlete. Makes plays with his legs more than Tom does. Runs a very complex system, understands it very well.

And I do believe that the burden of responsibility for the Eagles to win -- and he's going to have to make plays like we're seeing, running around, making people miss, is on Donovan McNabb. If he plays well, they certainly have a chance. If he doesn't play well, I don't think they stand a chance at all.

PHILLIPS: Now Philly's the underdog, right?

THEISMANN: Yes they are.

PHILLIPS: Because New England has done so well for the past what, three...

THEISMANN: There have 11 underdogs in the 38 previous Super Bowls, I believe, that have actually won. So there is the possibility that an underdog could win this ball game.

PHILLIPS: So at work are you guys all taking bets? Do you have, like, a pool that you're...

THEISMANN: No, we don't -- I don't gamble. I'm in the football business. I don't gamble. I think the number's very interesting, though, that's out there, as far as differential for the teams goes. If you're the Philadelphia Eagles, you feel good about this. You're saying to yourself, hey, look, nobody thinks we can win, anyway. So let's go enjoy ourselves and let's just go play. If anybody has pressure, it's the New England Patriots. They've been there before. They've done it before. So, they're the ones that have to show up. And the expectations are tremendous for them.

PHILLIPS: All right. The guys in the control room want to know if you brought a football. Can you pass it around the newsroom?

THEISMANN: I think we can find one.

PHILLIPS: We could use Miles'. Miles is pretty good...

O'BRIEN: I always have one lying around, yes, absolutely.

PHILLIPS: Great to see you.

THEISMANN: Thank you for having me. Appreciate it.

PHILLIPS: Thanks for being here.

THEISMANN: Thanks an awful lot.

PHILLIPS: OK.

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O'BRIEN: Checking health news now, no surprise that obese moms tend to have obese children. But remarkable findings are out on how many of these children end up obese and when they start putting on the pounds. Joining me with details, CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen.

Hello, Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello. Miles, it starts younger than you think. When a parent is obese or when both parents are obese the children tend to be obese and it starts at a younger age than doctors had previously thought -- or that some of them had previously thought.

Doctors took a look at a group of obese moms and compared them to moms who were not obese. And what they found is that at age 2 there was really no difference between the children of the moms who were obese and the children who weren't. But at age 4, at just age 4, they started seeing that the children with obese mothers were more likely to be overweight and in fact, by age 6, those children were 15 times more likely to be overweight and had doubled the body fat compared to children whose mothers were not obese.

The bottom line of this study, according to the study authors, is that programs that are aimed to help fight childhood obesity, one, need to start at a young age, and two, need to take the parents into consideration.

O'BRIEN: All right. Well, yes. And there's all of those nature versus nurture issues, is it genetic or is it just the fact that what is served in the house tends to make people obese. How do we know?

COHEN: It's both. I mean, they haven't completely teased it out, but they really think that both things are coming into play. First of all, genetics, your genes say a lot about what happens when you eat food. Do you put it on as fat? Do you burn it? What about your metabolic rate? A lot of that is genetic.

In fact, adopted kids seem to have more of a weight resemblance to their genetic parents than they do to the people who adopted them. However, in addition, lifestyle does matter. For example, if you eat large portions at home, guess what, your kids are likely to eat large portions at home. If you're inactive, it's likely that your children will be inactive. So both matter.

O'BRIEN: Yes, it's really hard to kind of sort that one out. And I guess a question that might come up in a lot of people's minds is what about obese dads? Do they have the same impact on their children?

COHEN: That's right. This group they were looking at the mothers, and the findings with the fathers were a little bit murky. But other studies have found that the dads do matter. What other studies have found is that if you have one obese parent, the child has a 30 percent increased risk of becoming obese. If the child has two obese parents, they have a 70 percent increased risk of becoming obese. So those numbers are huge. They really a say lot.

Now if you're interested in how to keep your child from becoming obese, first of all, obviously you need to watch your own habits. And for the child, limit TV watching to one to two hours a day. No TV in the child's room. That will make them just sit in their room and watch TV. No more than one fast-food meal per week. Exercise at least one to two hours per day. Limit juice intake to one cup daily. That's so important. People think, oh juice, it's juice, we can drink a whole lot of it. But it...

O'BRIEN: It's sugar.

COHEN: But it's a lot of sugar, a lot of calories in that juice. And no soda. Just don't even bother with the soda. No redeeming nutrient value.

O'BRIEN: All that sounds great, but it's hard for parents because you're talking about a lot of things that get you through the day, a little TV time, soda here and there.

COHEN: That's right. And also things that you've done as a parent, I mean, things that are a part of your life. So you have to change your life to be a good example, that's hard.

O'BRIEN: That's it, we have to change our lives first.

COHEN: But Miles, you're not obese, you're doing OK.

O'BRIEN: OK. Well, I could stand to lose a little. All right -- Kyra. (STOCK MARKET REPORT)

O'BRIEN: All right. Coming up in our second hour of LIVE FROM, a columnist tells all. She admits to taking cash from the Bush administration.

PHILLIPS: Also, it's cold as hell, I guess hell has -- all right, I get it now.

O'BRIEN: Hull has frozen over.

PHILLIPS: Thank you. I should have read this before, get it? Hence the picture.

O'BRIEN: Massachusetts Bay...

PHILLIPS: A Massachusetts torning (ph) the ice following a weekend storm. LIVE FROM's "hour of power" begins right after this. Hopefully I can pronounce everything right.

O'BRIEN: You're a Hull of an anchor.

PHILLIPS: Oh!

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