Five years after he was fired from his ESPN job for writing a headline that contained racist connotations, 33-year-old Anthony Federico is on the verge of becoming a Catholic priest.
In 2012, Federico infamously wrote the headline "Chink in the Armor" for a column that was critical of Asian NBA player Jeremy Lin, who at the time was a member of the New York Knicks. A slew of angry emails to ESPN followed and the network subsequently fired Federico, who told The Washington Post working at ESPN was his dream job.
A short time after the debacle, Federico had the realization that he was put on Earth to serve as a Catholic priest. He enrolled in Theological College, part of Catholic University in Washington, D.C., and is expected to officially become a priest in the near future.
"Looking back, I think God allowed this to happen to me to put me on a path to being a priest, a path that I was avoiding," Federico told the Post. "I've never been happier."
Federico said he has shared his story with people during his time as a seminarian, particularly some of the parishioners he's met who are feeling down.
"Everyone thinking of me as a bad person, an evil person — it was the worst 30 days of my life," Federico said. "To think I could be in a place now where I'm genuinely happy with my life and excited about serving the people of God — if you told me that then, I wouldn't have believed it.
"I think the thing that Jesus does best is second chances."
Lin is still in the NBA and plays for the Brooklyn Nets.
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