Former San Francisco 49ers running back and Bay Area icon, Frank Gore, will play in his 16th NFL season with his fifth team. He has agreed to sign a one-year deal with the New York Jets, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.
Standout veteran RB Frank Gore is signing a 1-year deal with the Jets, @RosenhausSports tells ESPN. Gore will be reunited with his former coach Adam Gase, with whom he spent the 2018 season.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) May 5, 2020
Gore remains the 49ers' all-time leading rusher and currently ranks No. 3 in the NFL's all-time rushing list with 15,347 yards. The future Hall of Fame running back and five-time Pro Bowler sits behind just Emmitt Smith and Walter Payton on the list.
Gore rushed for 599 yards and two touchdowns on 166 carries last year with the Buffalo Bills. He also spent three seasons with the Indianapolis Colts and a season with the Miami Dolphins, also under Gase, after leaving the 49ers after the 2014 season.
The 49ers will travel to play the Jets, coronavirus concerns permitting, during the upcoming season.
Gore was at Super Bowl LIV and made his way to the 49ers locker room after the game to comfort players and offer words of encouragement. That included comforting the team's leading rusher in the game, Raheem Mostert.
"He told me to just keep my head up, and he's proud of me," Mostert said via NBC Sports Bay Area. "And he's been watching me work. For him to say that to me is very special because he's a Hall of Famer, and I look up to him. It was cool that he came up and talked to me, and makes me feel like we're going to bounce back."
Gore spoke with Chris Simms of NBC Sports during the week leading to Super Bowl LIV and made a case to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame five years after he retires. He noted that, for a long time, he was the focus of opposing defenses and faced a lot of eight-man fronts. Yet, Gore still rushed for over 1,000 yards in four of his first five NFL seasons.
"In my first six years, I had four-and-a-half yards a carry with really nothing," Gore added. "... I played with so many different quarterbacks. That's hard on a running back. I played eight-, nine-man fronts almost my whole career."
