The feel good sports story of the year may very well be the hoax of the year. Yesterday we told you about USC cornerback Josh Shaw, who allegedly sprained both ankles saving a drowning kid. Every media outlet ran with the story, including ESPN and FOX who called him a hero for his actions.
Then word began leaking out late this afternoon of some discrepancies in the story. USC coach Steve Sarkisian addressed these concerns in a brief interview with reporters.
Josh Shaw, first and foremost is a good person. He’s a good kid. He came to us with what occurred Saturday night, and I have no reason or history to not believe Josh’s story. Obviously, within the last few hours or so, we’ve gotten a few phone calls contradicting what Josh said Saturday night. We’re going to continue to vet it.
The story’s unraveling rather quickly.
I heard late last night doubts within the program over Josh Shaw story #USC
— InsideUSC (@InsideUSC) August 26, 2014
There were red flags early. USC saying Shaw wouldn’t talk, family wouldn’t talk and Sark wouldn’t talk about it until after foootball q’s.
— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) August 26, 2014
Sources told me incident did not involve family party or rescuing nephew from pool. #USC investigating claims
— InsideUSC (@InsideUSC) August 26, 2014
And then some random woman dropped this bomb.
Sources: Josh Shaw was involved in an incident involving domestic abuse & jumped off a 3rd story window while running from LAPD. #USC
— Heather Brittany (@HeatherBrit) August 26, 2014
Of course this lovely woman could be lying. Above all she calls herself a fan. A fan with sources who breaks stories, but a fan nonetheless. My advice? Take that last tweet with a grain of salt. In the meantime…wait, how did this story go from rescuing a kid to running from the po po?