There are some sports stories that defy logic, and we had one of those this week. It involved University of Southern California Trojans senior cornerback and team captain Josh Shaw.

Shaw said he jumped from a second-floor balcony to rescue his seven-year-old nephew from drowning. After admitting making the story up, Shaw was suspended indefinitely by first-year Trojans head coach Steve Sarkisian.

In his apology Shaw said he sprained both of his ankles in a fall, but there was no attempted rescue of a child.

It  simply boggles the mind to understand why such a talented player would put his senior season under a new head coach in question by telling such a falsehood. I sincerely hope that the young man gets his priorities back in order and has a successful season.

Sarkisian was the successful head coach of the University of Washington Huskies before taking over as Trojans head coach. Hopefully Shaw has learned his lesson, and he will play well when he returns. We all make mistakes and we all learn from them.

As a team captain Shaw is someone the younger players should respect and look up to as a leader. He has got to earn that respect again, and I am confident that he will.

While I do not condone his action, I do believe in giving second chances, and I think he deserves one at some point. I think coach Sarkisian put everything about the incident in perspective when he told “USA Today” sports writer Christine Brennan that he is extremely disappointed in Shaw who let him and others down.

No matter what our state in life is, we are all responsible for our actions, whether they might be good or bad, and Josh Shaw is no exception to that responsibility.