They will know we are Christians by our . . .

Jeremy Lin

Jeremy Lin gave The Golden Rule treatment to the ex-ESPN employee who was fired for writing a racially offensive headline about the Knicks star last month.

"The fact that he reached out to me," Federico said. "The fact that he took the time to meet with me in his insanely busy schedule . . . He's just a wonderful, humble person. He didn't have to do that, especially after everything had kind of died down for the most part.

Federico says that like Lin he's a devout Christian, which was a big part of their conversation.

"We talked more about matters of faith (and) reconciliation. We talked about our shared Christian values and what we're both trying do with this situation," Federico said. "We didn't talk about the headline for more than three minutes."

Federico, 28, apologized after he was fired and said the headline was "an honest mistake."

- from the March 27, 2012 issue of USA Today.