John Rieger-USA TODAY Sports
San Francisco 49ers safety Donte Whitner is a fairly active “tweeter” these days, and this week made quite an entertaining ruckus when he announced he was thinking of changing his name.
The whole situation started after it was announced Whitner would be fined $21,000 by the NFL for his hit on St. Louis Rams wide receiver Chris Givens. Whitner took to twitter to let his followers know not only about his new clothing line, “#LegalHitner,” but also about the fine.
Well tweeps they fined me 21k for that hit….
— TWHITNER (@DonteWhitner) October 1, 2013
Whitner started selling shirts with his new tagline to get more people to support his case in allowing players to have a little more freedom on the field in recent years where the league seems to be cracking down too harsh at times. He later tweeted that he was thinking about changing his name because of his being sick of the league fining so many defenders this year.
Thinking about taking the W out of my last name. Mom said its ok (y’all kno I had to ask 1st lol) #NotPlayingEither
— TWHITNER (@DonteWhitner) October 1, 2013
What looked to start out as a joke soon became a reality. Whitner tweeted less than a day later that he had legally changed his name from “Whitner” to “Hitner,” taking the ‘W’ out of it completely.
It’s official…The W is being removed from my last name from Whitner to Hitner…GM
— TWHITNER (@DonteWhitner) October 2, 2013
This isn’t the first time something like this has happened, but I definitely think it is the most interesting case of a player changing their name. While Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson made the change a few years ago to represent his uniform number, Whitner — or should I say, Hitner — made the change for a hilarious, yet legitimate reason.
Ryan Heckman is a Senior Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @ryanmheckman, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.
