TMZ's Photo Of "Jerry Sandusky" Eating Donuts At The Airport Was Just Of Some Old Guy Eating Donuts At The Airport

Here's the release, and zealously watermarked photo, we got in the afternoon from the good folks at TMZ:

Jerry Sandusky has gone underground since the Penn State child sex scandal broke in a very public way last week, but TMZ just got the first photo of the disgraced former assistant coach.

The photo was taken this AM at LaGuardia Airport in NYC, as Sandusky waited for his flight, and passed the time by diving into a bag of Dunkin' Donuts.

Several people walked up to Sandusky, wanting to talk with him ... but he politely declined to engage them.

Shockingly ... no one hurled insults at him.

And here's the release we just got:

A Gerald Sandusky got a boarding pass on a Spirit Airlines flight this afternoon from LaGuardia to Detroit. This we know.

Here's the problem. This guy is NOT Jerry Sandusky.

Passengers on the flight tell TMZ ... they walked up to the man at LaGuardia and he said he couldn't talk about the Penn State scandal. We then confirmed a Gerald Sandusky indeed had a boarding pass for the flight.

But when the plane landed in Detroit, we spoke with the man and he said in no uncertain terms ... he was not the guy.

As for the Gerald Sandusky who got the boarding pass ... we just don't know.

TMZ has since offered the photo to us without watermarks. Hooray. No word yet on the terms of Old Donut Guy's bail.