“0% chance you are telling truth”: NFL fans flame Panthers reporter David Newton as he apologizes for insensitive remark on Xavier Legette’s late dad

ESPN Reporter David Newton, apologized on Friday after asking Carolina Panthers wide receiver Xavier Legette a question that touched a painful part of his life. Newton posted on X, writing:

"I have been in touch with the Panthers and have also reached out to Xavier Legette to apologize for my question Thursday regarding his late father’s Cowboys fandom. There is no excuse for my forgetting a hard moment in X’s life. "I have nothing but respect for Xavier. It was an innocent mistake on my part, but a hurtful one, and I hope he will accept my apology."

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NFL fans shared their takes on X.

"You didn’t forget his dad died," one fan said. "You wrote a story about it. There is 0% chance you are telling the truth here. Gross. You made a comment that his dead dad probably wouldn’t be a Dallas fan this week. Just an unnecessary thing to say. Now lying makes ur true colors indisputable." "If you remembered his dad was a Cowboys fan you remembered that his dad had passed," another fan said. "Your aren’t fooling anyone with your lame attempt to backtrack because you got called out." "Go ahead and resign," a fan said. "A mistake is a mistake, but when you have a track record for making bad ones, it's a pattern. The best thing to do is apologize to him in person and then resign. Writing words on the internet is lazy."

More NFL fans shared their takes.

On Sunday, during media time in the Panthers locker room before their Week 6 game against the Cowboys. Newton asked Legette if he grew up a Cowboys fan.

Legette said yes, because his dad was a fan. Newton replied, “I’m thinkin’ he won’t be this week,” not realizing Legette’s father had died.

Legette looked hurt and said:

“For sure, for sure, ain’t a Cowboy fan… no more.”

In March 2019, Xavier Legette’s father, Anthony Legette, died due to a heart attack, just two months before Xavier graduated high school.

His mother, Anita, had died earlier from breast cancer during his freshman year of high school.

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Reason behind backlash against ESPN Reporter David Newton over question to Xavier Legette

In July 2024, ESPN reporter David Newton wrote a detailed feature on ESPN website about Xavier Legette and talked about how the young wide receiver had lost both of his parents.

One passage out of the whole article had quoted Legette’s aunt, Chrystle Neal.

"Legette sounds just like his dad, Anthony, who died of a heart attack in March of 2019, four years after the receiver's mom, Anita, passed after a long battle with cancer," Neal said.

Xavier Legette was drafted by the Carolina Panthers in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft with the No. 32 pick. He played college football at South Carolina from 2019 to 2023. He’s a wide receiver, wears jersey number 17, and stands 6'3", 227 lbs.

In his rookie season (2024), Xavier had 49 catches, 497 yards and four touchdowns. In 2025 so far, he has six catches, 39 yards and one touchdown.

He had a strong game in Week 5 against the Dolphins, making two big catches, one of them a tough touchdown grab.

Edited by nagpaltusharn25