I know why you care, you jump on every NCAA faux scandal. The real laughingstock is whoever runs USC's PR department for not vetting the story. That person is likely an educated adult who gets paid a handsome salary not some dumb kid getting a free ride. Even then it should be something to laugh about not have a national witch-hunt over.
This has nothing to do with the NCAA.
I care because it's a fascinating story of the lengths someone will go to to avoid just telling the truth when they do something wrong. They were talking about it on ESPN and they said after the Manti Teo story I really thought people would learn how silly it is to do this. The simple answer is tell the truth, take the punishment and learn from it.
What made the Teo story so "big" was he refused to tell the truth for far too long, he was getting too much good PR out of the dead girlfriend so he not only didn't stop it he encouraged it.
What made this story so big was that Shaw was given multiple chances to stop it and didn't. USC people were apparently skeptical right away and yes they shouldn't have ran the initial story so quickly but again they want a hero he gave them a hero they ran with it. Then they started getting all these calls from people telling them Shaw was lying, so they confronted him and he insisted it happened. Then per rumor they told the press because they figured he'd come clean if he was lying rather than face the press, but he just disappeared making him look bad and USC look stupid for telling the press to be there for a story they already thought was fake. Then he gets his sister to lie for him and less than 12 hours later he comes clean which makes his sister look bad for lying, although good for sticking up for her brother.
IT's a classic life lesson kids that age do stupid things, he hurt himself doing something stupid, we'll probably never know what really happened, but rather than just face the music he tried to make himself into a hero to get out of it.
It's actually really common, it's fascinating to me that this stuff happens and people never learn. Politicians, CEO's they get caught lying like this all the time.
And yes the fact that he plays for USC makes it funnier to me, you should see the comments from USC fans when this story was first released, always knew he was a great Trojan fight on, there's a good reason he was voted a team captain etc. On and on about what a fine example he was of what makes USC special, and the whole thing was a lie. It's hard not to laugh at stuff like that.
Remember this is the same school that for years now has refused to tell the truth on how OJ Mayo broke Daniel Hackett's jaw, although in that case per multiple reports from even USC people, it's because they know they would get in trouble. The story is Mayo punched Hackett, a coach took Hackett to the hospital where on the forms Hackett wrote he'd been punched by a teammate at practice. Several problems, the coach had told them it was an accidental elbow, and the incident occurred during the summer, USC wasn't allowed to be conducting practices per NCAA rules, the coach wasn't allowed to be present. It was further complicated because Hackett's dad was a USC coach and as a result Hackett wasn't a scholarship player he was a walkon, he said it was an intentional punch, the coach said it was an elbow, how do you file an insurance claim with two totally contradictory statements? So Hackett changed his story and for literally years refused to tell the truth. He's been playing overseas and has in fact told the truth now more than once, they practicing with a coach present, Mayo punched him, and then everyone started panicking on how they were going to not get caught violating NCAA rules. Then the insurance angle came up .
At least in this case it's just a kid trying to cover up something not an entire athletic department.
