ESPN Reporter Claims Panthers WR Rode Horse To Playoff Game... He Didn't Though
It's not quite as brutal of a blunder as it may seem...
The Carolina Panthers hosted their first playoff game in years, and it was an intriguing matchup between the Panthers, who entered the postseason as sub-.500 division champs, and the Los Angeles Rams, who lost when the two teams met in the regular season, but came in as the prohibitive favorite and potential Super Bowl contender.
Then things got really weird when one player was reported to have shown up to the game on horseback, only for that not to be the case at all.
Before the game, ESPN's David Newton shared a video that quickly went viral of a couple of guys in cowboy hats and riding horses toward Bank of America Stadium. Newton claimed that one of the guys was Panthers wide receiver Xavier Legette on his horse, Dolla Bill, and it quickly spread across social media.
It makes sense why Newton may have thought this. Legette really does have a bunch of horses.
In fact, here he is on one of his horses named "Dime Piece."
He is also quite the character and single-handedly put raccoon in the culinary spotlight.
But, here's the thing: neither one of those guys was Xavier Legette.
It appears they're just a couple fellas riding horses to a playoff football game.
As one does.
Newton took down his original post, but not before a bunch of outlets ran with it. He put out a statement, confirming that he had, indeed, misidentified both the horse and the person riding it.
Honestly, I think it was a reasonable mistake. I mean, it's not 1890. You don't see a lot of people out and about on horseback anymore.
So, if you see someone riding a horse toward a football stadium ahead of a big game, and you happen to know that one of the players is a big horse (and raccoon) guy, it's not an illogical leap.
But if you're going to be a Big J, you've got to do some digging about the horse's provenance and the identity of the person riding it.
Horse controversies aside, it was a solid day for the Panthers, who put up one heck of a battle, but came up short, losing to the Rams 34-31.