Former San Francisco 49ers safety Donte Whitner has been very vocal about the team for a while now, and he has taken things a step further by airing his dirty laundry with current safety Ji’Ayir Brown.
On a recent episode of Whitner’s Grit Code podcast, he shared that Brown called him to take issue with Whitner for being critical of the young safety. Whitner said he told asked Brown if he thought he played well last year, and when Brown said he did, Whitner dismissed him as delusional.
Some were critical of Whitner for sharing the details of a private conversation between he and Brown, since many thought Brown made a good move by trying to speak to Whitner man to man. But Whitner defended himself by saying that he and Brown are not friends, and that he felt Brown was coming at him aggressively for his criticism.
No one truly knows who is in the right or in the wrong here, but it’s not a great look when a former Niners safety is publicly feuding with a current safety.
Malik Mustapha, Brown’s current teammate, appeared to come to Brown’s defense by posting a picture of the two of them together on his Instagram. It was a nice gesture for Mustapha to his teammate, so maybe in some way, the safety room can rally together because of this. The safeties have certainly taken a lot of criticism, so they have a chance to prove people wrong.
In a perfect world, this would not be an adversarial relationship. Brown could certainly learn a lot from Whitner since he was a phenomenal safety at his best, so if the two worked together rather than Whitner trying to farm a personal feud for content, then that would be ideal for San Francisco.
Whitner already thinks the Niners should change newly drafted cornerback Ephesians Prysock from a cornerback to a safety, so there are clearly thoughts on how the Niners should be doing things.
Whether general manager John Lynch and the 49ers will listen is another matter entirely, but why not get Whitner out at training camp or during practice for a day or two to give Brown some pointers?
Maybe Brown doesn’t want to hear it, but smoothing over the tensions would probably be best for all involved unless Whitner just wants to create a situation where he and Brown trade barbs back and forth from afar.
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