Having read & watched both interviews that Tiger Woods conducted outside of his Isleworth home on Sunday afternoon, and thought about everything else leading up to the interviews, it only made sense to have one massive reaction piece rather than five separate missives about particular aspects of the interview.

Thus, this reaction piece is a bulletpoint-style analysis of the day's events in chronological order.

It was evident that this interview had been planned since midweek.  CBS was contacted on Thursday and said no to the five minute constraint.  ESPN and Golf Channel decided it was ok and picked their particular staff.  Good for CBS for sticking to their guns, but they don't deserve a ticker tape parade.  Big stars like Woods can dictate their appearances in front of media.  It's either cover him under his rules or not at all.  ESPN and Golf Channel decided his way was better than the highway.

Why not give NBC a chance, though?  They were broadcasting the Tampa event already, and could have seen a huge ratings uptick if they stuck around to play the Tiger interview at the bottom of the 7 o'clock hour.  Trailing Tiger is awaiting a call back from NBC Sports this morning concerning the opportunity, or lack thereof, to speak with Tiger.

Having the interview on Sunday night was kind of weird.  The network newscasts were off the air, but Tiger's camp knows we live in a 24 hour news cycle - with or without Ari Fleischer on the bag.  They also knew ESPN & Golf Channel would run their respective 5 minutes down the public's throat all night on Sunday and all day today.  It wasn't about beating the news cycle.  Maybe he thought that the health care vote needed an opening act?  Perhaps it was to deflect attention away from Joslyn James' text messages and purported emails still to be released.

As for the timing on Sunday, why 7:30 pm specifically?  Had it not poured in Tampa, the interviews were to have gone on sooner.  So, it seems then that this was done to prevent the PGA Tour and Transitions from being upstaged while the tournament was happening.  Too bad, though, that Furyk was winning the tournament as the interviews were played simultaneously.  Transitions was none too pleased by that timing, especially since another three minutes was all Furyk needed to close out the win.

Since they aired it anyhow, what did we learn?  For one, Tiger is continuing to stonewall the public like he did the police about the complete details of his wreck.  He told Rinaldi that all of the details of the crash are in the police report.  No, they're not.  All the details he can legally get away with not sharing are missing, including security footage from his own camera that Woods' lawyer said he couldn't figure out how to work.  The Florida Highway Patrol never pursued further.  But Woods did reveal more information to Tilghman than Rinaldi, saying, "I wasn’t going very fast, but unfortunately, I hit a few things."

Tiger says that he continues to be in treatment, but won't disclose for what reason.  That's private.  Fair, but then the question arises if it for a sexual addiction or substance abuse.  That leads to something that neither Rinaldi nor Tilghman asked: what about Dr. Anthony Galea?  And has the FBI contacted Woods for an interview?

We learned that Tiger got away from Buddhism.  Glad that he is finding it again, but can someone explain to me what exactly the connection is between faith and screwing around on your wife?  There is none, really.  Otherwise, there would be a connection between Catholicism and clerical molestation of children.  Ok, so maybe there is a connection there.

Apparently, not only was Elin in the dark, but his whole team was about these affairs.  That seems to be confirmed by what Joslyn James has been releasing in those crazy text messages.  Woods purported texted to her that his agent had no clue what was happening.

Tiger used the past tense of "love" when describing his relationship with Elin and hurting her.  Does that mean he does not love her anymore?  And if that's the case, then at what point does the marriage become a total sham (if it isn't already)?

Both interviews worked on different levels.  Tiger was clearly more comfortable with Tilghman because of their personal relationship and her questioning style.  She had a few very good questions in there and got a little more out of Tiger than Rinaldi did there.  Provided that Tilghman seemingly has been relegated back to Golf Channel's Orlando studio, this interview may help re-establish the reputation that earned her the 18th tower on the PGA Tour telecasts in the first place.  This time, though, keep Tilghman at the anchor desk.

Rinaldi asked harder hitting questions.  He got some decent material out of Tiger, but I don't think anything astounding.  That said, I liked Rinaldi's interview better.  He played this like it was a one-time shot, so he could get out what he could.  Tom wasted several follow-ups on the crash particulars that he was not going to get, but recovered well and made some poignant inquisitions.

Kelly Tilghman interviewed Tiger like a compassionate friend.  Separating out that personal interest in a situation like this is nearly impossible.  She did really well with what she had available to her and knew full well that most of what she really wanted to know would never get a straight response.

In terms of camera work, kudos to Golf Channel for going with two cameras.  The second camera should have been filming Woods' mannerisms more than his Buddhist string bracelet, but it was a smart approach.  Provided how well ESPN films its E:60 program, it is surprising that they did not go with two cameras and a more artistic approach.  Given the short notice, though, that was a bit much to ask.

At the end of it all, we really learned nothing new.  There are still dozens of questions that could be asked of Tiger but were not in these interviews because either (1) the response would be too long, (2) Woods would never dignify a true response to it, or (3) the question did not flow well with others that were in the lineup. 

Provided that I do at least one interview per week for my podcast at Waggle Room, I typically get an opportunity with someone for ten to fifteen minutes.  In that time, I can choose to rattle off a lot of questions with short responses, or just a few questions and let the subject take the interview where they will.  Rinaldi and Tilghman both chose the former - though with different tones and questioning patterns - and made it work as best they could for them, given the constraint.

Yes, Tiger agreed to do two interviews with no restrictions on what questions could be asked.  Tiger exerted his control by limiting the time of the interview and the responses he chose to provide to the questions. 

Tiger wins again.