Xavier Legette is bringing his undeniable Mullins, SC, charm to Carolina Panthers

On one of the biggest nights of his life — the night that saw him become a first-round NFL Draft pick — Xavier Legette wasn’t at a flashy club or a sports bar or even at his own home.

He was at a banquet hall in his hometown.

“That’s really the only spot we had in Mullins to be able to do that,” the former South Carolina receiver explained on Friday.

You could tell the venue is used for important occasions when you watch videos from the night. Certain clues give it away. The overhead lighting, for one. The open lobby, for another, where cheery voices echoed off the floors. It got so loud at certain points into the wee hours of Friday morning that Legette had to treat FaceTimes from Carolina Panthers brass like phone calls, pressing his ear against the speaker phone to hear what general manager Dan Morgan or head coach Dave Canales was trying to say.

“We wanted to keep it smaller, keep it to family,” Legette continued. Everything he said was with an easy smile and easier cadence, as if he’d just woken up from a pleasant dream. “Only about 65 people were there.”

Only?

For Mullins, South Carolina, 65 people is no slouch. The town, population 5,000, is one of the smallest towns in one of the most rural counties in South Carolina. It’s the kind of place where everyone knows everyone, and it’s the kind of place that’s been overlooked in an increasingly all-or-nothing world.

But as Legette prepares to head 132 miles northeast, to the closest metropolis in Charlotte, one thing is for certain:

He’s taking Mullins with him.

Thursday, Legette became a Carolina Panther after the franchise traded up one spot with the Buffalo Bills to sneak into the first round. The move was a strategic one for Carolina. The Panthers got “their guy” — and much needed wide receiver depth — while also obtaining the rights to his fifth-year option. That last part gives the Panthers a hefty security blanket in case Legette becomes the player the Panthers expect him to become his first few years in the league.

The move was also special for the 23-year-old wideout and his hometown. Legette is now set up to be only the second NFL player to come out of Mullins and the first to do so since Bishop Strickland, a fullback who played nine games in the 1951 season. Legette said he took pride from knowing his hometown history.

“I’m very excited to be able to show the younger folks who are coming up that they are able to do the things they are able to accomplish,” Legette said. “That they are able to accomplish their dreams.”

But before he can bring the entire town of Mullins to Charlotte, Legette needs to see if Carolina can handle him first.

It’s easy to tell Legette’s shaped by the town he grew up in. The first thing you notice is the way he talks, as if he’s habitually talking through a smile. His country elocution is so thick that national pundits, even after learning how he’d like his name to be pronounced, still get it wrong. (It’s Legette, as in Lee-GET, he told reporters on Friday. “I always tell folks to hold the ‘e.’”)

The second thing you notice are his physical gifts. He’s 6-foot-1, 221 pounds. He’s fast, too; he recorded a 4.39 40-yard-dash at the NFL Scouting Combine. In his fifth year at South Carolina, he recorded 71 catches for 1,255 yards and seven touchdowns, plucking 50-50 balls out of the air as early as the season-opener in Bank of America Stadium, his soon-to-be new home.

Many have compared him to DK Metcalf, the most notable among the big and fast receivers. Panthers head coach Dave Canales, a former assistant in Seattle who worked directly with Metcalf, weighed in on the comparison Thursday, saying that he’s “a different type of player” and will require ample “polish” but that “I definitely do see some of the physical traits. This is a rare combination of athletic ability.”

Dan Morgan was even more effusive.

“I really don’t want to make any comparisons,” the general manager said. “I do think Xavier, he’s a unique guy. He’s big, he’s strong, fast, physical. He just had a lot of things that we loved.

“Then bringing him in here for his 30 visit, just kind of sitting with him, we were sitting in the draft room with him, me and Dave and some of the scouts — and just to kind of talk to him and feel his passion for the game, his love for the game, it just really made you love him even more. We’re just really happy to have him.”

A few other things that might make you like Legette, the person. He rides horses, a product of his uncle putting him on the back of a horse when he was young. He is a prideful Gamecock, fulfilling a dream his father had for his son before he passed away in March 2019, about four years after his mother died after a long fight with breast cancer. He’s been to one Carolina Panthers game — he can’t exactly remember which one, but Cam Newton and Kelvin Benjamin starred — and is looking forward to his “second” and “real” one in September. He considered Friday morning a whirlwind — one where he learned he was a Panther and 12 hours later received a text from Bryce Young and was greeted by a crowd of fans and owners David and Nicole Tepper and slammed the Keep Pounding drum.

And, above all, his nickname is “Zebra,” he said, a moniker with no true origin, just one his cousins gave him as a kid and stuck. He pronounces it “Zeh-bruh,” drawing more smiles as he explained it Thursday. That prompted more questions and smiley responses about how he talks.

“Oh yeah, they’ve been dragging it all over the place,” he added about his elocution, chuckling. “Dragging it all over social media.

“I just tell them, ‘They just ain’t never heard nobody from Mullins.’”

That is, until now.

Editor’s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated where the hometown NFL Draft party celebration was held. It was at a banquet hall in Mullins.