49ers running back Christian McCaffrey continues to be one of the best players in the NFL. He’s looking for ways to maintain that status for years to come.
Via Jennifer Lee Chan of NBCSportsBayArea.com, McCaffrey looks to Frank Gore as inspiration for a long career.
“His longevity,” McCaffrey said. “I think just to do what he did for so long is unbelievable. That’s something that is tough to do. I just have so much respect for the way he did it and also his mindset as a runner. He had all the gifts you would want. The way he would finish runs, the way he would refuse to go down. It was fun watching him growing up. I was a kid when he was rolling.”
Gore kept going and going and going. Never at any given moment regarded as the single best running back in the league, Gore remained in the conversation for years.
“It’s a combination of a lot,” McCaffrey said of Gore’s success. “I think it’s a mindset, it’s having extremely good instincts, vision and it’s comfort in the offense too. You watch him, he’s good at not just taking big hits but I think when you watch him, he knows when to deliver big hits too and be the hammer, not the nail.
“He was such a great back for so long because of that. He had all of the intangibles but the instincts and the things that are hard to teach, he had all of those things.”
McCaffrey has a very long way to go to match Gore, who finished third all-time with exactly 16,000 rushing yards. McCaffrey currently is in a three-way tie at No. 137, with John Brockington and Marion Butts, at 5,185 rushing yards. McCaffrey could get into the top 100 as soon as this year; William Andrews holds that spot with 5,986 yards.
That’s not a knock on McCaffrey. It’s just further evidence of the greatness of Gore, who played from 2005 through 2020. That’s rare at any position. For running backs, it’s unheard of.
Except for Gore, who hopefully will earn a spot in the Hall of Fame for putting together so many rushing yards in an era that has skewed heavily to passing.
