Lance Armstrong felt he needed to come clean, he just didn't know who to do it with. ​

He picked Oprah, but he also thought about NBC's Tom Brolaw, or just going online with a confession. ​

The NY Times reports that the disgraced athlete spoke with Sports Illustrated's Michael McCann, at length last month, but only on the condition that he not be quoted directly. 

Armstrong said he almost sat down with Tom Brokaw, the former “NBC Nightly News” anchor, instead of Ms. Winfrey. 

“He had also weighed the possibility of producing a four- to five-minute video that would have been available on his official Web site, as well as YouTube, Facebook and other sites,” Mr. McCann wrote. The video would have allowed Mr. Armstrong to look straight into the camera and apologize — and would have allowed him to avoid Ms. Winfrey’s questions.

“Ultimately he concluded that a conversation would be a more natural vehicle than a scripted speech, and the choice was between Winfrey and Brokaw,” Mr. McCann added.

​More from the NY Times