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David NewtonJul 26, 2025, 06:20 AM<\/p>\n
Close<\/a>David Newton is an NFL reporter at ESPN and covers the Carolina Panthers. Newton began covering Carolina in 1995 and came to ESPN in 2006 as a NASCAR reporter before joining NFL Nation in 2013.<\/p>\n CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The big smile, gregarious laugh and strong Southern accent of Carolina Panthers<\/a> wide receiver Xavier Legette<\/a> created a social media stir this summer with his trip to the Kentucky Derby and rides on his horse “Dolla Bill” around his hometown in South Carolina.<\/p>\n But nothing blew up more than a pre-training-camp getaway<\/a> with teammates to Minnesota and their attempts to convince the No. 32 pick of the 2024 draft to get off the back of a small boat into the St. Croix River.<\/p>\n “I told [Legette] the other day, ‘Hey, this summer I got more questions about you than anybody else,”’ wide receiver Adam Thielen<\/a>, 34, said Friday with a laugh.<\/p>\n Thielen, a native of Minnesota who spent his first 10 NFL seasons with the Minnesota Vikings<\/a> before joining the Panthers in 2023, put the trip together with quarterback Bryce Young<\/a>.<\/p>\n It was designed in part for Young to work with his receivers before training camp and to get to know them on a more personal level.<\/p>\n The receivers were also meant to get to know each other better, too.<\/p>\n Legette stole the show during the boat trip that included some river surfing by those not nicknamed “X.”<\/p>\n Editor’s Picks<\/p>\n 2 Related<\/p>\n “No, I don’t think that’ll ever happen again,” Thielen said with another laugh. “He wasn’t going to get in the boat to start with. So the fact that he actually got in the water a little bit — I wouldn’t say that’s like necessarily getting in the water — but it says [a] lot about him.”<\/p>\n It started with the 6-foot-1, 221-pound Legette sliding onto the back edge of the boat wearing a life vest and holding onto a red rope. As he put his feet into the water, he shouted: “Hey, I’m in there.”<\/p>\n That was followed by a gut-busting laugh from Legette and his teammates.<\/p>\n As 2025 first-round pick Tetairoa McMillan<\/a>, Thielen and others egged Legette to get fully in the water, Legette laughed and said, “I can’t feel nothing down there.”<\/p>\n A teammate responded: “No, there ain’t nothing down there.”<\/p>\n Legette finally slid into the water about waist high, holding onto the boat and a rope, saying: “Does that count?”<\/p>\n Thielen smiled, recalling the moment.<\/p>\n “He’s just out there, he’s going to try it, even though he did not want to be there,” he said. “He was out there with the guys and bonding. It says a lot about him. Like, all jokes aside, it says a lot about his character, right? He was not comfortable. He did not want to be in that boat, especially when he saw the boat. It wasn’t a yacht.”<\/p>\n The video went viral on social media, but not because Legette posted it.<\/p>\n “The funny thing is he doesn’t post anything on social media,” Thielen said. “It’s all kinds of other people blowing up on TikTok or whatever it is that he gets those videos out.<\/p>\n “He’s just a great personality, right? He’s exactly why I enjoy coming to work every day. He’s a fun guy to be around. He’s always laughing, smiling, having fun.”<\/p>\n Thielen believes that will help a Carolina receiving corps that was ridiculed last season become what former NFL Pro Bowl receiver Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson posted on X<\/a>: “a trio of receivers being the best in the league w\/consistency week to week for Bryce Young.”<\/p>\n “That stuff carries over into the games,” Thielen said. “When things get stressful, when things get tough, you’ve got to be able to trust your teammates.”<\/p>\n