Before Alex Rodriguez flipped the switch on his defiant, longtime drug-cheat image ... before the post-career entrepreneurial whirl and frolic across the celebrity landscape with superstar then-fiancée Jennifer Lopez ... before the TV gigs with Fox Sports and ESPN and a failed attempt to purchase the New York Mets followed by the successful bid for a minority piece of the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves and WNBA's Minnesota Lynx ... before all that, A-Rod had to finally come clean about his sordid past.
Here's how it unfolded.
Nearly a decade ago, the then-New York Yankees third baseman walked into a beige-and-glass building in the affluent master-planned community of Weston, Florida, situated along the Everglades about 22 miles west of Fort Lauderdale.