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USC Football Player Josh Shaw Admits He Made Up That Feel-Good Story About Saving His Nephew's Life
Josh Shaw, right (Photo by Neon Tommy via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr)
USC football cornerback has copped to making up a heartwarming story about the way he wrecked his ankles. Initially, he told his coaches that he jumped off a 2-story balcony to save his 7-year-old nephew from drowning at a family event.
It's been a weird 24 hours with this story. Yesterday USC announced that they had been fielding calls claiming that the story was bunk. Rumors about what really happened were flying.
LAPD released a statement saying they had no run-in with him. But then TMZ said he had been named in a police report as a person of interest—not a suspect—in a burglary that took place near USC on Saturday night. Specifically, someone said a suspicious person had been spotted "shimmying" down the side of a building. Police talked to Shaw's girlfriend who lives in the building and admitted it sounded like Shaw. In the midst of all this, Shaw's sister backed his story on KTLA. Everyone else in the Shaw camp clammed up.
However, today Shaw admitted to making the whole thing up. Shaw wasn't going to be playing any time soon thanks to his high-ankle sprains in both legs. But now he's been suspended from the team indefinitely.
USC has taken down the story on its site in which head coach Steve Sarkisian called Shaw a leader. Sarkisian claimed he had vetted the story earlier and said Shaw's "heroic act" demonstrated "the kind of person he is."
Now we're curious to know what really happened.
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