Josh Shaw may have lived through the perfect example of how lies can compound and result in a lot more trouble than what the truth would have brought.
Speaking to the Los Angeles Times' Bill Plaschke, Shaw said he wanted to delve into what happened because he has "seen the dark side... hit the bottom, [and] learned" from it. Now he must wait for the police investigation to end to be reinstated to the team, though charges are not expected to be filed.
"I want people to know the truth of who I am," he said.
In late Aug., Shaw told the University of Southern California's (USC) official website that he suffered two high ankle sprains after leaping from a third-story balcony to save his drowning nephew. He said there was no one in the vicinity of the pool, so he felt compelled to act.
After a few days of increasing scrutiny as several details of his story were picked apart, Shaw finally admitted his version of the story was a lie. He was actually arguing with his longtime girlfriend Angela Chilton and the exchange grew loud enough to prompt a neighbor to call 911.
"We just got into an argument just like every couple does," Shaw told the Times. "Was it loud? Yes. Was it overly loud? I don't think so."
The senior cornerback apparently was spooked when he saw police approach the apartment building, but not because of guilt. He said he was worried about how it might look if he was implicated in a domestic violence investigation conducted by the police. So he leapt from the balcony.
"I would never, ever hit a woman," Shaw said. "We were not on good terms when she left, I thought she had somebody call authorities. I was thinking the worst.
"If she did say anything, I'm a black man with dreadlocks, and with everything going on in the country at the time, all that stuff in St. Louis [Ferguson, Mo.] ... in my mind, I'm going to leap from the balcony so authorities did not see me."
He said he crawled toward the street and called his brother to come help him. Back at Justin Shaw's apartment is where he came up with the plan to make up a good reason for sustaining such an injury out of nowhere. He called USC on Sunday and they told him to go to the hospital, so he did.
"I didn't think it could be proved that story was not true," he said. "My sister [Asia] was having a party ... my cousin does have a balcony over his pool... It involved only myself, my sister, two or three little kids, and my cousin.
"I never wanted this deal to go viral at all, it was not my intention at all. I thought coaches would say OK and we'd just deal with it."
A co-captain on the football team and a standout defensive back, Shaw came to grips with the fact that he had to explain his injury to the public. His attempts at not identifying the specific injury were rebuffed. However, he knew he was in "way too deep" when he saw his story getting airtime on ESPN.
Shaw said he told his family all together about his lie, but what the one thing he wished he had done that day when he jumped off the balcony was call his father first.
"My biggest mistake wasn't jumping from the balcony, it was in not calling my father after I did," Shaw said. "I would not be sitting with you today if I done so. I tried to keep it from my father, and I will regret that to the day I die.
"My father is someone with wisdom, my father would have me tell the truth, we would have called [coach Steve Sarkisian] that night."
