Consider ESPN's Monday rollout of Alex Rodriguez confessing to steroid use. There are plenty of TV venues for celebs to get a much-hyped star close-up. But for anybody in crisis mode looking to put together an instant PR counterpunch, Rodriguez's tango with ESPN Monday was textbook.

After SI.com's report on Rodriguez's steroid use surfaced last week — quickly followed by a Bob Costas special on the new MLB Network, which suggested that MLB-owned TV won't have to be like state-run TV — the New York Yankees slugger agreed to an interview on ESPN. His only condition, says ESPN's Mike Soltys, was that Peter Gammons would do it — and the veteran reporter, predictably, did a solid job.

ESPN began hyping the interview, which aired on the 6 p.m. ET SportsCenter, around 1:45 — as soon as Rodriguez was miked up. And ESPN was sending out snippets — on TV and radio as well as online — before Rodriguez was even done talking in an interview that lasted less than an hour. The afternoon then became one long ad tease for an interview held, logically, for when more TV sets would be in use — leaving a parade of talking heads to muse on what might happen next before viewers had fully heard from Rodriguez.

On ESPN's Around the Horn, panelist Woody Paige— after helpfully telling viewers, "I'm not wearing any pants" — said he was happy Rodriguez came clean "and said exactly what happened." Really, you had to wonder, had Rodriguez come clean? On Pardon the Interruption, Tony Kornheiser said, "Let's throw out some names" — then named players — that might become known steroid users.

When the interview finally aired — after ESPN must have made even comatose viewers know it was an exclusive — it was sliced into segments sandwiching even more analysis.

Presumably, ESPN parent Disney also has movie rights.