Donte Whitner's Creative Response To Fine

San Francisco safety Donte Whitner is not happy about the $21,000 fine he received for a hit on Rams wide receiver Chris Givens in the fourth quarter of the 49ers' victory at St. Louis last week. He thought the hit was clean, and he may be right.

So in addition to a formal appeal, Whitner is staging a unique sort of protest. The 28-year-old Pro Bowler is creating and selling shirts that read #LegalHitner. He posted several styles to his Twitter page:

Of course, before taking the W out of his last name, he had to get his mom's permission:

A crafty 49ers fan even updated Whitner's Wikipedia page:

Not only can fans support Whitner with these shirts, the safety made an enticing offer to anyone thinking about buying the merchandise:

For Whitner, who signed a 3-year, $11.75 million contract with the 49ers, the more money he gets from the t-shirts, presumably the less he'll have to pay himself. In that case, perhaps oft-fined Detroit Lions tackle Ndamukong Suh should look into starting his own clothing label.