For most of Monday’s post-practice press conference, Xavier Legette appeared to say less than what was on his mind.
Monday marked the Carolina Panthers’ starting wide receiver’s first appearance in front of media since Friday. Legette, last year’s first-round pick, got into a fight with Cleveland Browns cornerback Rayshawn Jenkins in the first quarter — a scuffle that included four Legette punches before Jenkins ripped Legette’s helmet off and teammates intervened. Both Jenkins and Legette were ejected.
Legette apologized on social media during the game Friday, saying, in part, “it won’t happen again.”
Monday he was peppered with questions about the incident, and the former South Carolina Gamecock star was smiley but coy in his answers, with a towel around his neck and a hoodie over his head.
Did you have something to prove today after Friday night?
“Nah man, I’m just trying to go out there and do my job,” Legette said.
What did head coach Dave Canales talk to you about after the game?
“Keep the main thing the main thing,” Legette said. “And that’s the ball. I know I ain’t supposed to do what I did. I’m just gonna leave that on the field.”
Emotions just get the best of you?
“Something like that.”
When pressed, he added: “It was a little something that happened, that’s all it was.”
That’s how the responses continued for the 6-foot-1, 221-pound receiver Monday. Legette has grown into one of the more beloved Panthers and one of the NFL’s more charismatic characters this offseason — thanks to his Mullins, S.C., charm, and his Southern elocution, and his spring and summer months at the Kentucky derby, in music videos, and at ice-level at Carolina Hurricanes games.
Legette eventually added that Friday was the first time he’d been ejected from any football contest; that he was “waiting on” a fine from the NFL but one hasn’t come yet; and that there were no words exchanged between him and Jenkins on the field — that it was just a physical altercation taken too far.
Canales told reporters Friday night that he didn’t get a chance to talk to Legette immediately after the game. But the second-year head coach told reporters that he had a “great conversation” with Legette over the weekend — and then had a pretty productive practice on Monday.
“He bounced back quickly,” Canales said. “We had a great conversation afterward. He knows. He wasn’t defensive about it. He was like, ‘I gotta be better.’ So we just moved on, and he was ready to work today.”
That’s what Legette said, too.
He was even prompted about the boxing he’s done in the offseason — something he and rookie wideout Tetairoa McMillan have bonded over, he said, as this year’ first-round pick cross-trains in the ring, too.
“That’s just for cardio, that’s all that’s for,” Legette said.
Do those instincts come out on the field?
Legette laughed.
“I guess you could say that.”