Xavier Legette of the Carolina Panthers shared racoon meat with reporters. Xavier Legette of the Carolina Panthers shared racoon meat with reporters.
By Arthur Weinstein on

NFL players have been known to share some very strange stuff with reporters at their locker, from bizarre anecdotes to unexpected trade demands. But Carolina Panthers rookie wide receiver Xavier Legette offered a real surprise for reporters Thursday.

There, Legette produced leftover raccoon meat from his locker. He proceeded to share that with the media.

Legette went viral a couple of weeks ago after he admitted on the St. Brown Podcast with brothers Amon-Ra and Equanimeous St. Brown that he ate a raccoon for Thanksgiving. The two were stunned, but Legette pressed on, saying, “I hunt it. I kill it. I skin ’em. Cook ’em. Eat ’em. All that.”

So Thursday, when a reporter asked Legette what he’d had for Christmas, he doubled down.

“I had some ‘coon, I brought some with me today, too,” Legette said.

“That’s what it looks like?” one reporter asked incredulously.

“Can we take a picture of that?” someone else added.

“Ya’ll are crazy,” Legette said.

“It looks weird,” one reporter observed.

“That’s not what I expected it to look like,” said another.


A few reporters tried some of the dish. No one made the quintessential dad joke (“It tastes just like chicken!”) but Panthers beat writer Sheen Quick admitted the meat “wasn’t bad — spicy and well seasoned.”

Panthers.com reporter Darin Gantt hilariously downplayed the incident’s novelty, saying that reporters who hail from the rural South don’t see this as unusual. Legette is from Mullins, South Carolina.


In case you’re wondering, Legette does draw the line at eating some items. He told reporters that bell peppers and onions are “too exotic.”

[Sheena Quick on X]

About Arthur Weinstein

Arthur spends his free time traveling around the U.S. to sporting events, state and national parks, and in search of great restaurants off the beaten path.

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