Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton drew a lot of flak last week for his post-Super Bowl interview. Many talking heads were quick to criticize his short answers and abrupt departure from the press conference. Others, myself included, excuse Cam’s behavior as the natural response of a hyper-competitive athlete who just lost the biggest game of his career (to date).

Regardless of which camp you fall into, all journalists will benefit from reviewing the tape, so to speak, of Cam’s interview. Because if you ask questions for a living, you’re guaranteed to come across a hostile and difficult interview like this one. Walking away from these interviews with anything useful is going to take a special effort. With that in mind, here’s my Monday morning quarterback review of how I would have handled this interview.

Assess the Situation

This seems obvious, but it’s important to formulating a strategy. Interviews are a chess game with no fixed rules, so you need to be nimble. Cam’s slouched posture, his apathetic expression and shrugs all signal he has zero desire to be in this interview. If you’re on the other side of the podium, you need to immediately decide your next move. There’s no quick answer to this one and most often it comes down to a judgment call based on your experience.

In this instance, I would go with cutting the interview short. I’d pick two or three of my most important questions and ignore my questions about turf conditions or whether he planned to do any sightseeing in San Francisco before heading home. The longer you drag it out, the worse it’s going to get.

Sometimes that’s not the best move. In this case I wouldn’t label Cam “hostile,” just difficult. Public officials under pressure (say, the mayor answering questions about kickbacks or a sex scandal) can get hostile and throw snide jibes about “the media.” In that instance, I would hold an elected official’s feet to the fire and barrage him with questions. Who knows. He might just slip up and depart from the canned responses.

Ask Meaningful Questions

Bad questions in a difficult interview are usually the result of two things: awkwardness and pressure.

The pressure is usually built-in because big stories are the most common source of difficult interviews. Your source doesn’t give a rip about your deadline, though. They don’t care your editor is expecting you to file a front page story chock-full of details. They just want to be gone. So when the interview starts going off the rails, the pressure leads to panic, which leads to sloppy questions.

It also gets awkward really fast in a difficult interview, at least on your end. Like, open fly in a business presentation awkward. Interviews depend on a give-and-take formula to work, so you’re left with nothing when the validation dries up. Looking back at the interview with Cam, you can sense some of the desperation when the reporters start stating non-questions like these gems:

“I know you’re disappointed not just for yourself but your teammates. You guys talked about being a band of brothers coming in. It’s got to be real tough.”

“Obviously you’re disappointed…you’ve played some tremendous games and had some tough losses too. Being on this big a stage…it’s difficult I know.”

Cam doesn’t even verbally acknowledge that last one. He just gives a look and a nod like “obviously.”

To be fair, some of the reporters asked some really good questions. I liked “Anything in particular that was memorable?” and “Can you put your disappointment in words?” Cam’s lackluster responses are not the reporter’s fault.

The lesson here is don’t panic, detach yourself from your feelings and stick to your list of questions.

Experience Pays Off

Experience is going to be your lifeline in a difficult interview. The more you go through, the better you’ll be at handling them. But for the rookies out there, here’s a piece of encouragement. Even the pros can get flustered from time to time.