Donte Whitner can’t file paperwork due to government shutdown
By Corey Leahy
According to Adam Schefter, Donte Hitner has been shutdown for the time being, as he is unable to file the name change papers because of the government shutdown.
The 49ers safety wanted to changed his name from Donte Whitner to Donte Hitner after receiving a $21,000 fine on a hit he had against the St. Louis Rams. However, it looks like he will have to wait a little bit longer before he can actually go through with the name change due to the current situation with the government.
Though maybe while he’s waiting for the paperwork to get processed, he can get a head start on some of the other things he needs to do in order to ake the name come into effect.
One of the things he needs to do, according to ESPN, is buy all of his old Whitner jerseys that are still on the Nike market.
"The name change will not be cheap for Whitner. A league official told ESPN’s Darren Rovell that NFL rules stipulate that if a player changes his name during an NFL season, he is required to purchase all the remaining inventory of merchandise with the old name that hasn’t been sold."
Apparently, Whitner is ready to do that, but he has no idea how many jerseys are out there right, so he has said he will buy them all, depending on how many there are. Regardless, he will have to buy all of them so he might as well find out sooner or later so he can start wearing the #31 Hitner jersey from now on.