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S Donte Whitner (Official Thread)

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Whitner cites mid-week practice for intensity level vs. Saints

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The white-hot intensity with which Donte Whitner began Saturday's game against the Saints began building Wednesday. Teams rarely have full-padded, full-contact practices after the preseason, but the 49ers decided to have one Wednesday following their bye week. Whitner, fellow safety Dashon Goldson and linebacker Patrick Willis set the tone, and Whitner credited the week of practice for the way the team played Saturday.

"Dashon came out with the face paint on his eyes already," Whitner said Monday. "I had my mouth piece in, we had shoulder pads on. We were out there hitting and taped up and strapped up like we were in the game. And (Carlos Rogers) mentioned, 'Ya'll safeties are out there like it's game day already.'"

By the time game day arrived, it was as if Whitner had been shot out of a cannon.

He had the hit of the game, one that occurred on the shadow of the San Francisco goal line and one that left Saints running back Pierre Thomas unconscious and without the football. Secondary coach Ed Donatell said the best tackler he's ever seen was Ronnie Lott - Donatell coached him one season - and that Whitner's performance on Saturday was Lott-like.

"I think it was important to the game," Donatell said of the Whitner's hit. "I just think it measures what it means to him - when guys are flying in there and make that kind of domination hit. That's how important it is to them."

The question now becomes whether Whitner, Goldson and the others can match or surpass Saturday's intensity level. While the Saints finished the regular season with the top-ranked passing offense, the Giants weren't far behind at No. 5, and quarterback Eli Manning finished with 330 yards and three touchdowns against Green Bay.

"I don't think it's hard to do that because the playoffs bring that out of you," Whitner said of getting up for Sunday's game. "If you're really a fan and you're really a competitor and you really love the game of football, being on the grander stage, the bigger stage really brings that out. ... If anything, I'm going to look for more (intensity). It's going to be a big game. We're going to need that intensity from everybody and we have to put it on the line this week."
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Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/49ers/archi...-intensity-level-vs-saints.html#storylink=cpy

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmmKNf6wXNQ"]Donte Whitner Interview after BIG HIT Pierre 49er Playoff [2012] game 2012 DEFENSE - YouTube[/ame]
 
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49ers: The hit safety Donte Whitner will never forget
By Carl Steward [email protected]
Posted: 01/18/2012

The hit safety Donte Whitner laid on New Orleans tailback Pierre Thomas will never be forgotten by many 49ers fans. It was a blow that helped deliver San Francisco to the NFC championship game on Sunday.

But the hit that Whitner always will remember occurred when he was 6 years old growing up in inner-city Cleveland. And as fate would have it for a future safety, one day he was chasing down a loose football that had bounced into the street. He didn't see an oncoming car speeding through a 25 mph zone, however, and he took the full force of a grisly collision with the automobile.

Whitner knows he's lucky to be alive today, let alone be making a name for himself in the NFL playoffs with perhaps the "greatest hit" so far this season -- or any season -- by a member of the 49ers defense.

Both of Whitner's legs were shattered in more than 30 places when he was hit by the car. Doctors told his mother, Deborah Whitner, that Donte might not ever walk again, and that playing sports would be out of the question even if he did. He spent three months in a full body cast, and he was so incapacitated his mom had to tow him around in a wagon.

Hence, Whitner has more appreciation than most that the 49ers are hosting the NFC Championship Game against the New York Giants on Sunday, and that he'll be an integral part of it.

"As a team, we're one step away from reaching our dream of the Super Bowl," Whitner said Monday. "But I've already reached

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http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_19769042
 
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The Full Donte: Checking in with 49ers? safety Whitner

Posted by Cam Inman on January 18th, 2012

The 49ers? game-winning drive Saturday came on their final possession. Their momentum-winning drive came on the game?s first series, when safety Donte Whitner delivered a hit that (a) put the brakes on a way-too-easy Saints? opening march, (b) forced the most important turnover of the 49ers? season, (c) knocked Saints running back Pierre Thomas out of the game, (d) all of the above and so much more.

To read more about Whitner?s background and the reaction his first-quarter hit caused, check out Carl Steward?s story that is running in Thursday?s editions. To hear more from Whitner, read below for today?s transcript (courtesy of Jerry McDonald):

How did it feel after the Week 2 Dallas loss?

?Whenever you lose a football game and you put a lot into it and you really want to win it, it puts a bad taste in your mouth, and that taste doesn?t come out until you play the next week?s game. A lot of people were down around here, we felt like we had the football game won. Gave up one big play in overtime to lose the game, and we really felt down about that. Everybody told one another that we weren?t going to allow that to happen again.?

What specific to tighten up?

?I don?t think it?s anything specific that we did, but if anything, focus more in the fourth quarter. Focus more on the small things. Because that was a small mistake that happened that didn?t have to happen. I remember, it was me and Carlos on that side, we were playing quarters coverage, and they hit us with a play action. Whether it was my fault or whether it was Carlos? fault, we didn?t get the job done, and the guy went over 70 yards and then they kick a field goal to win the game, that?s the way it went. We just told each other that we weren?t going to allow it again. Actually the same play that Carlos broke up this past week, that was the same play that they ran on us, just a little different angle. So we learned from that.?

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http://blogs.mercurynews.com/49ers/2012/01/18/the-full-donte-checking-in-with-49ers-safety-whitner/
 
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Cleveland native Donte Whitner running down his dream with San Francisco 49ers
Published: Friday, January 20, 2012
By Mary Kay Cabot, The Plain Dealer

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Jose Carlos Fajardo, Contra Costa Times
Former Glenville and Ohio State star safety Donte Whitner celebrates a fumble recovery during San Francisco's victory over New Orleans last weekend.

San Francisco 49ers strong safety and Cleveland native Donte Whitner went from being told as a little boy that he would probably never walk again to being one step away from playing in the Super Bowl.

"It's tremendous to even be playing football at all," said Whitner, who will face the New York Giants in the NFC championship game on Sunday. "To be one victory away from being in the Super Bowl after everything I've been through is my biggest dream come true." At 6 years old, Whitner was playing catch in his Kinsman Road driveway, and the ball rolled into the street. He darted out after it and was struck by a car driving down the street. His mom, Deborah Robinson, got the call at work that her eldest son had been hit by a car, and she was convinced he was dead.

"Nobody would tell me anything but that he had been hit," she said. "All I could think of was that he was gone and they weren't telling me."

She raced home from her job at a nearby nursing home, blinded by her tears and screaming hysterically. "I could've been killed myself," she said. She was driven to Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, where Whitner had been taken by ambulance.

"I had to be strong in front of him," she said. "But the doctors told me he'd probably never walk again and that he'd never, ever play sports again.

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http://www.cleveland.com/browns/index.ssf/2012/01/cleveland_native_donte_whitner.html

Whitner can take, deliver a hit

The hit safety Donte Whitner laid on New Orleans tailback Pierre Thomas will never be forgotten by many 49ers fans. It knocked Thomas out of the game and helped deliver San Francisco to the NFC title game on Sunday.
CARL STEWARD; The Oakland Tribune
Published: 01/20/12

The hit safety Donte Whitner laid on New Orleans tailback Pierre Thomas will never be forgotten by many 49ers fans. It knocked Thomas out of the game and helped deliver San Francisco to the NFC title game on Sunday.

But the hit that Whitner always will remember occurred when he was 6 years old and growing up in inner-city Cleveland. One day he was chasing a loose football that had bounced into the street. He didn?t see an oncoming car speeding through a 25 mph zone and took the full force of a grisly collision with the vehicle.

Whitner knows he?s lucky to be alive. He suffered more than 30 fractures in his legs from the impact of the car.

Doctors told his mother, Deborah Whitner, that Donte might not walk again, and that playing sports would be out of the question if he did. He spent three months in a full body cast, and was so incapacitated his mom had to tow him around in a wagon.

Hence, Whitner has more appreciation than most that the 49ers are hosting the NFC Championship Game against the New York Giants on Sunday, and that he?ll be an integral part of it.

?As a team, we?re one step away from reaching our dream of the Super Bowl,? Whitner said. ?But I?ve already reached my dream, just making it to the NFL from being a kid who was told he?d never walk again.?

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Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/01/20/1991038/whitner-can-take-deliver-a-hit.html#storylink=cpy

PD: Could you describe on-the-field Donte and off-the-field Donte?

WHITNER: When I'm off-the-field Donte, I have to be a father. I have to be a son. I have to be a lot gentler than what I have to transform into on the football field. On the football field, I have to be angry. I have to play angry. I have to play aggressive.

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http://www.pressdemocrat.com/articl...-Donte-Whitner-explains-his-split-personality
 
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49ers? Whitner shrugs off hurting opponents with physical play
Posted by Michael David Smith on January 22, 2012

New Orleans Saints' Thomas fumbles the ball after being hit by San Francisco 49ers' Whitner in the first quarter during their NFL NFC Divisional playoff football game in San Francisco Reuters

San Francisco safety Donte Whitner knocked out New Orleans running back Pierre Thomas with a big hit last weekend. And if he knocks out a Giants player with a big hit today, well, that?s just life in the NFL for you.

?We play physical,? Whitner told the New York Post. ?Whenever you play physical, people get hurt.?

Whitner sounds like he?s willing to oblige Giants running back Brandon Jacobs, who said during the week that he welcomes the 49ers delivering helmet-to-helmet hits.

?We don?t want to go out and intentionally hurt anybody,? Whitner said. ?But when you play this game the way we play, we play fast and carefree, some guys are going to end up getting injured. We are not going to stop playing physical. Guys come out of the game, hopefully it?s not too bad of an injury.?
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http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...ugs-off-hurting-opponents-with-physical-play/
 
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