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Shaw Making Most Of A Difficult Situation

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By SCOTT CARTER, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 22, 2007

Updated: 12/22/2007 12:13 am

TALLAHASSEE - Three days before what was supposed to be the first game of his last season, Florida State's Joslin Shaw received word he would not be making the trip to Clemson for the Labor Day game on ESPN.

Shaw was crushed, believing he had provided honest answers when talking to school officials investigating an academic misconduct scandal within FSU's athletic department.

A fifth-year senior, Shaw tried to convince FSU officials he wasn't involved in the way he was portrayed, but that didn't prevent him from being ruled ineligible for the first four games of the season and serving somewhat as the academic scandal's most visible face.

"I'm not going to point any fingers at anybody else," Shaw said Friday after practice. "I mean, it is what it is.

"I'm just happy for it to be over."

When the former star at Plant City High was ruled eligible to play a month into the season, facts about the investigation began slowly trickling to the surface, implicating 23 student-athletes in nine sports. Still, until Tuesday when FSU announced that as many as 25 football players would be suspended for the Music City Bowl because of their involvement in the scandal, Shaw and sophomore defensive end Kevin McNeil were the only players to serve any punishment.

The day Shaw was cleared to play in late September, FSU coach Bobby Bowden praised him for the way he handled the situation.

"I really missed him," Bowden said. "I really feel like he was treated unfairly in this thing. I feel like he is nearly a scapegoat in it. I'm so glad that they got it cleared up and we got him back. Here's a kid who has worked diligently for us for five years and he finally gets a chance, and then something like this happens.

"In his situation, it was a misunderstanding type of thing."

When he was first suspended, Shaw and his family considered all their options, including legal action. But once Shaw was finally cleared on Sept. 29 - hours before FSU's victory over Alabama in Jacksonville - his family turned its attention to making the best of a difficult situation.

"What's done is done," Kenyatta Shaw, Joslin's sister, said Friday. "Joslin served his time and we're moving on and putting this behind us."

In limited playing time, Shaw caught a career-high 15 passes and played a key role on special teams. In what he calls one of the most difficult periods of his life, Shaw remains committed to his team and school, regardless of whether he feels he was treated unfairly.

"It's kind of time for me to move on in life and pursue other things," he said Friday. "I have no regrets for coming here. I love Florida State, but for me, I think it's time to move on."

Still, there are unanswered questions about how a "rogue tutor" in the athletic department - that's the way FSU President T.K. Wetherell described the culprit at the center of the investigation in a statement he released Friday - caused so many problems for so many people.

Shaw said he never worked directly with the tutor, who according to FSU officials, provided test answers to student-athletes taking online exams in a music appreciation course.

"Honestly, I answered that question," Shaw said. "I don't know what he did, because I never worked with that guy. So my case is different from maybe someone else's. I think everybody's case is a little different."

Shaw is scheduled to graduate in May and put this chapter of his life behind him. A perfect start to that next chapter would be a victory over Kentucky in the Music City Bowl, certain to be the final game of his final season.

"We're having some adversity, but we're all standing strong pushing each other in the hope that we'll come out with a victory," he said. "We feel like we have a chance, even with all the things going on."

Reporter Scott Carter can be reached at (850) 294-3088 or scarter@tampatrib.com.

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