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Donte Whitner to Aldon Smith's family: "C.J. Spillman should have a lot of answers for you"
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- Donte Whitner to Aldon Smith's family: "C.J. Spillman should have a lot of answers for you"
Former NFL defensive end Aldon Smith died last Saturday, at the age of 36. His family has hired a trio of lawyers to investigate the circumstances of Smith's passing.
One of his 49ers teammates has provided a lead for the lawyers to pursue.
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Speaking on The Grit Code Podcast , former NFL safety Donte Whitner addressed the situation. These are his words, as provided on a public platform.
"The day that Aldon died, I received text messages, phone calls, FaceTimes from some of our ex-teammates," Whitner said. "And some of the shit that I saw was fucking disgusting.
"Now, I'm gonna go ahead and say it. C.J. Spillman called me. Six a.m. Bali time. And he put me on FaceTime, and he was showing me pictures of Aldon slumped over in the front seat. Aldon, laying on the ground in front of the vehicle that he was traveling in . . . with all the shit hooked up to his body, pretty much deceased. And I want to say that it's disgusting, because if you call me and we barely talk, and it's circulating around, there's more than just me that saw those videos and those pictures.
"So, I saw that Aldon's family is hiring private investigators, lawyers, to investigate what actually happened that day, and I hope that they listen to this so they can understand and know who to contact. First and foremost, C.J. Spillman should have a lot of answers for you. And Anthony Davis as well. Anthony Davis was in the pictures, looking over Aldon. So I want to say that he probably didn't have anything to do with it, but whoever was there, they had something to do with it.
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"And it broke my heart. I really didn't want to even speak on the subject, but I have to. And knowing me, I have to tell the truth. I have to say what I saw because it's traumatizing. I had nightmares two nights in a row after seeing those videos, and after seeing those pictures."
Spillman played for the 49ers from 2010 through 2013. Anthony Davis played for the 49ers from 2010 through 2014, and in 2016.
Whitner then focused on his communications with Spillman.
"[C.J. Spillman] called me, and he said, 'Did you hear what happened to Aldon?'" Whitner said. "I said, 'No, call me.' He called me on the phone. He said, 'Well, Aldon was — he was unresponsive, and they said that he might not survive and he's on his way to the hospital.' And then he said, you know, 'FaceTime me.' And then I FaceTimed him and . . . he showed me, and the man's body, leaning over in the front seat, then he swiped to the side. Then he showed him in the front of the vehicle, the SUV that they were traveling in, on the ground with the EMS, with everything hooked up to him, and then he . . . told me, 'I think that Aldon is dead,' right? After showing me that.
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"And then I'm thinking, like, 'Why the fuck do you have these pictures? Who the fuck is taking these pictures?' And then you see Anthony Davis . . . in there, you see everybody else in the EMS, and [Aldon] laying on the ground is fucking disgusting."
Although at least one characterization of Whitner's comments has a headline indicating that Whitner " hints at foul play ," it's hard to tell what Whitner is specifically saying.
Other than this: The lawyers investigating Smith's passing should talk to C.J. Spillman, and Anthony Davis.
