Frank Gore grinds way to record, playoffs

After the game, Frank Gore's emotion could not be tackled easily. Sort of like Frank Gore himself.

The man was pumped. He jogged to Candlestick Park's south end zone and raised his arms to screaming fans who'd stuck around to celebrate the 26-0 victory over St. Louis -- a victory that created a relevant 49ers' January for the first time since the 2002 season.

Did the last three months really happen? They did. Gore let out a whoop. He decided raising his arms wasn't enough, not on a day when he set the all-time 49ers career rushing record and also clinched his first playoff trip, ever.

And so Gore spontaneously grabbed a large 49ers flag, snatching it from Lucas Ortiz, a personal trainer from Mountain View who moonlights on weekends as one of those peppy-cheery-banner-running guys.

"Frank just ran up and took it away from me," Ortiz reported about his absent flag. "I wasn't going to stop him. He earned it."

Gore took his earned income and waved it. He waved the flag in one corner of the end zone, jogged to the other corner and did the same thing. He didn't want to let the flag go. He carried it down the dugout tunnel. He carried it into the locker room. A puzzled Ortiz tried to follow Gore and reclaim the flag, but failed.

"I'm sure he'll give it back to me later -- hopefully, signed," Ortiz said.

Gore's plan did run into a glitch. Once he entered the locker room, the ceilings were too low for him to do more waving. So he decided just to bask and enjoy and yell, along with his teammates.

"I was just having fun," he said. "I am just happy."

Frank Gore cannot tell a lie. The past six years, he wasn't happy. After each season, he sat and watched NFL playoff games with a stomach that felt like it was trying to digest a wad of discarded ankle tape.

Gore's stomach felt this way because those six years, after he spent so many games being tackled and tenderized and bruised in loss after loss, he was forced to witness other teams dance across his television screen in the postseason. It really bothered him. Especially after the 2008 season. That bothered him most of all.

"It was the year Arizona made it to the Super Bowl," Gore said. "When you see that, it lets you know that anything can happen in the postseason ... us against Arizona that year, the games were neck and neck. That year, their team clicked at the right time."

And the 49ers, of course, never clicked -- until this season, when under new coach Jim Harbaugh, the clicking was deafening.

Sunday's game, which featured many slog-it-out moments, was not a pretty victory. But for Gore and the other 49ers who had endured the past six seasons, it was still giddy. For Gore, it even made all of those wad-of-ankle-tape-in-the-stomach nights worth the misery.

Gore didn't score a touchdown, didn't have a spectacular game. He finished with 21 carries for 73 yards, an average of 3.5 yards per carry -- typical of the way his odometer works. Yet it was special when, on the second play of the second quarter, he took the ball and bulled around right end for 2 yards and officially pushed himself to first place on the all-time list of 49ers running backs.

Harbaugh, watching from the sideline, was leading the applause.

"It's a powerful thing to set that kind of a record," Harbaugh said. "You start talking about some of the injuries he's had, injuries that would end the career of a lesser man. Shoulder, knee, hip. What it takes to bounce back from that, mentally and the physical rehab. ... That's all just strength. That's strong will."

Gore, who acknowledged the crowd's ovation when the news of his record was posted on the scoreboard, later gave his own quasi-acceptance speech.

"I first have to say thanks to the man up above," Gore said, "for letting me do something that I love to do and to have my name be mentioned with some of the guys who were here before me. I also have to give a shout-out to all of my O-linemen that have helped me get this record -- the ones who are here now and one who were here before."

As has often been noted, Gore is the most popular veteran in the 49ers locker room, largely because of the way he has endured and persevered. But his leadership skills are often underrated. Harbaugh told a story that illustrated why they shouldn't be. Last week, Gore sensed his coach was uptight as the 49ers approached their possible playoff-clincher.

"He came up to me probably half a dozen times and said, 'Coach, we got this,' " Harbaugh said. "And I believed him. I trusted him."

In Gore they always trust. With his record carry Sunday, he surpassed the club record held by Joe "The Jet" Perry, who gained his 7,344 yards from 1950-60 and 1963. Gore might be more famous nationally if, like "The Jet," Gore had a colorful nickname. If that were the case, he might be known as Frank "Grinder" Gore, because that's the way he runs.

For the record, some of the other 49ers players do call him "Big Frank." It's a salute to the way he's often carried the team on his back since 2005. It's also amusing, given Gore's stature. He is hardly a big man. At 5-foot-9 and 217 pounds, he can at time disappear into the clump of opposing tacklers, only to pop out of the clump and grind out more yardage. Gore's offensive linemen never cease to be amazed.

"It's just an honor to be a part of it," offensive tackle Anthony Davis said.

As of this morning, Gore is officially at 7,396 yards. And grinding.


(mercurynews.com)