Alex Rodriguez on 60 Minutes

The Alex Rodriguez interview on the long-running, CBS news series, 60 Minutes, was interesting and entertaining. He made it very clear that he has never used steroids or any other drug and that he was never tempted to do so. When interviewer, Katie Couric, tried to pin him down on his teammates and Barry Bonds, he did not bite and held his ground.

Even more entertaining was his remarks about what went wrong with the opt-out and how it went down during the World Series and his regret and apologies for how it happened. He also distanced himself from his agent, Scott Boras, and how the whole "debacle" was handled.

His responses were candid and contrite and it shed new insight on his falling out with his agent. A-Rod's wife, Cynthia, talked about how her husband had to make phone calls himself and how he had to take the initiative. It was a remarkable sequence and left--at least this Fan--quite gleeful at the hit Boras was taking.

The interview was the same night as the Surviver: China finale, and I couldn't help but compare the new Surviver winner and Rodriguez and Boras. The winner fully admitted manipulating the situations and even gloried in his strategy. He duped everyone so masterfully that the "jury" gave him the top prize even though they were the victims.

Boras has been the master manipulator, but unlike the Survivor winner, will never admit it. Let's face it, part of his job is to sell his clients and make them (and himself in the process) a lot of money. He does his job well, but there is a moral fiber that seems to be missing. Rodriguez seems to understand how Boras went too far and had to fix it with the Yankees, the Red Sox and the Steinbrenners.

Or, as Jeff Probst questioned the "poker player" about the flattery the Survivor winner delivered during the "jury" questioning, "But did he mean it." There is something about Rodriguez that makes me ask the same question. "Did you mean what you said, Alex?" He certainly seemed genuine. Or he could be duping us with just another strategic play where he ended up getting what he wanted in the first place.

Being the rube that I am, I am going to be naive and say he meant what he said. Because if so, it makes a great story and a victory for all of us who have hoped that Boras would be knocked down a peg or two sooner or later.

And who knows, hopefully some day, we'll look back and know that Alex Rodriguez did not take any drugs, was a decent human being and finally took a page from John Elway and that speed skater (Heiden?) who finally won what he was supposed to win and capped off a glorious career. Time will tell.