Tiger Woods chose ESPN and the Golf Channel as the venues for his first interviews, since his sex scandal began four months ago. He gave the interviews with the requirement that they be only five minutes long.

"If you limit it to five minutes, when you account for structure, there's not much time to get into anything, which is probably best," said Syracuse University professor and pop culture expert Robert Thompson.

Woods had to be careful to ensure that the interviews were done in a such a way that they did not overshadow the PGA event being played this weekend. Woods has been able to transcend the game of golf in ways that no player in history has been able to accomplish. His presence (or lack thereof) can make or break a golf tournament's financial outcome.

"We really had two main things that were most important," said an ESPN spokesman. "No. 1, no restrictions on questions, and No. 2, we chose the interviewer."

"We were happy to get it," said an ESPN spokeswoman.

"We've been asking for an interview all along, and we were granted the opportunity," said a spokesman for the Golf Channel.

Woods chose the Golf Channel and ESPN mainly because the networks would be more focused on sports, rather than gossip.

"By definition, they're going to be talking about this in terms of a golf story," Thompson said.

"What little he has done, he has been smart," Thompson said. "The less said, the better. The more you talk, the more chances you are able to get in to trouble."

Bob Thompson, the scholar interviewed for this story, is one of my good friends and respected colleagues at Syracuse University. Professor Thompson is absolutely correct in the sense that Woods needs to get the world to reconsider him as an athlete and not an adulterer. In fact, he may even want to learn from R. Kelly, the singer who was involved in a sex scandal much worse than the one that plagues Tiger Woods. During his first interview with BET, Kelly continuously reminded the audience to focus on his music and nothing else. Kelly knew that by having his fans think about him as a singer, he would be able to move past the fact that they were seeing him as a sexual deviant.

While I am not one to condone any of the allegations against R. Kelly, I can almost empathize with Tiger Woods. Not that committing adultery is a good thing, but it's interesting that many Americans act as if he's the only man who's ever cheated on his wife. There is also a deeper degree of confusion regarding why Tiger put himself through this drama in the first place. If he was a single man with tons of money, no one would have given him such a hard time had he remained single for a few more years. So the best question asked by the ESPN interviewer that night was, "Why did you get married?"

In response to the interviewer's question, Tiger stated that he got married because he loved his wife with all his heart. What's interesting about Tiger's comment is that in spite of his character flaws, I really believed him. He does love his wife, because a single man who seems to like sex that much should probably have kept himself out of the line of fire. True love can always make us do things that just don't make any sense. A divorce to Elin Nordegren would cost Tiger roughly $100 million dollars, which is a high price to pay for love. Therefore, in spite of Tiger's decision to disappoint his wife, there is no question in my mind that he loves her.

Either way, Tiger is coming back. He'll be playing in the Masters in April, and there is a good chance he's going to win. One year from today, this scandal will be forgotten.


Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.