Frank Gore is planning on signing a one-day contract to retire with the 49ers this summer before joining San Francisco in a front-office role. He revealed the news to Bovada’s Heidi Watney this past weekend, as noted by TheSFNiners on YouTube.
Tom Rathman coached Gore from 2009-2014 and saw the running back mature in a big way over those six seasons, en route to becoming a likely first-ballot Hall of Famer. Rathman joined 95.7 The Game’s “The Morning Roast” Monday to discuss what made Gore so special. Check out the full interview below:
“Frank Gore wasn’t that guy you described when I first got there,” Rathman said. “He was very selfish. When he didn’t get the yards, he’d storm off the field and into the locker room and jump in the shower and get out there. Through the six years I worked with him, he developed into a great teammate. He’s always been a great teammate. These things that I’m talking about were the passion that he had for the game and when things didn’t go right or didn’t go his way, he had a little issue after the game and you could get him calmed down by Monday afternoon.”
Gore ranks third all time behind Emmitt Smith (18,355) and Walter Payton (16,726) in career rushing yards. Of his 16,000 career yards, 11,073 of them came in a 49ers uniform. Gore told Watney his one-day contract with the Niners will probably be figured out in the next “couple of months.”
Rathman has played alongside and coached some of the franchise’s best tailbacks, but said Gore is at the top of the list. Rathman was also known for his toughness as a fullback, so his compliments carry some extra weight.
"He was one of the most dominating pass blockers that I've been around as a coach,” Rathman said. “He would literally knock the crap out of guys when they came in. He tried to hurt 'em. … Phenomenal player. Great toughness. Not a tougher player, pound-for-pound, I don't think that has ever played the game."
If there’s one major thing missing from Gore’s resume it’s a Super Bowl ring. The Niners were on the doorstep of the end zone against the Baltimore Ravens in crunch time of Super Bowl 47, but ran four plays (including three passes) inside the 10-yard line without handing the ball off to Gore.
“That’s probably the most disappointing thing in my 31 years coaching and playing,” Rathman said, “getting to that game and knowing that you got a guy like Frank Gore, who basically got us down there in that scoring position and not really giving him an opportunity. That’s how the game goes sometimes.”
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