ESPN Uses 'Chink In The Armor' Headline For Jeremy Lin Story

I actually can't believe this happened. Of all the dumb things to think up when adding a headline to a story about Jeremy Lin, 'Chink In The Armor' may just be the dumbest. And it happened on the ESPN website.

See screenshot and update below.

Via Myles Brown.

Seriously, this is real. It was up on the mobile versions of the ESPN sites, including the ScoreCenter app, which would seem to indicate it was on the main site at one point or another. I'd guess it takes a bit of time for headlines to refresh across the different platforms.

In what world is this ever okay? And how does the person writing the headline not pause to think "Hey, we're running this headline that contains a derogatory term for Asians along with a giant picture of Jeremy Lin"? The puns have been beaten into the ground already, but perhaps headline writers should stick with those instead of branching out and coming up with such gems as the one pictured above.

I understand how this happened, but it's no excuse. Friday nights, especially this time of year, are skeleton crew nights. There are few, if any, checks and balances -- much fewer than a normal day -- in the middle of the night on a Friday, when this went up. But still, this shouldn't slip through the cracks.

The headline was unintentional -- it had to be unintentional. Someone is going to get buried for this, making it a hard lesson to learn. But dang, don't plaster the word "chink" underneath Lin's name on a huge national website without understanding exactly what the backlash will be. It's not edgy or funny; it's a ridiculously terrible mistake.

Related: ESPN anchor uses "chink in the armor" in Lin segment on the air.

UPDATE, 9:15 a.m. ET: ESPN has issued a statement on the headline use.