New York (CNN) — Former ESPN writer Anthony Federico apologized Monday for writing an offensive headline about basketball sensation Jeremy Lin, calling it “an honest mistake.”
The controversial headline read “Chink in the Armor: Jeremy Lin’s 9 Turnovers Cost Knicks in Streak-stopping Loss to Hornets.”
The phrase — Chink in the Armor — contains a word that has two meanings; one is an ethnic slur.
“I’d love to tell Jeremy what happened and explain that this was an honest mistake,” Federico told the New York Daily News in an interview published Monday.
ESPN fired Federico and suspended Max Bretos, an anchor who used the same phrase, the sports network said Sunday.
