Colts decide to let Gore leave in free agency
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Running back Frank Gore came to Indianapolis with Super Bowl aspirations.
Three years later, he’s leaving without a ring or an assurance he’ll ever play another football game.
General manager Chris Ballard announced Wednesday the Colts do not intend to re-sign the 34-year-old, soon-to-be free agent, who is ranked No. 5 in career rushing.
“Frank is at a point where he knows we need to get younger,” Ballard said during the first day of the NFL’S annual scouting combine in Indianapolis. “And I wanted to give Frank a chance to finish his career where he wants to.”
Ballard and just about everyone else will miss Gore’s leadership and optimism.
Despite playing behind a struggling, ineffective offensive line each season in Indy, he never complained. He simply kept working, talking positive and plugging ahead.
The results were impressive.
After falling 33 yards short of his ninth 1,000-yard season in 2015, he rebounded with 1,025 yards at age 33 in 2016 – making him the oldest 1,000-yard rusher since 35-year-old John Riggins in 1982. Then in December, the ageless Gore had a career-high 36 carries for 130 yards in an overtime loss in a Buffalo blizzard.
He even made passing some of the league’s best runners look Frank Gore, the NFL’S fifth all-time leading rusher, will become a free agent this offseason after spending the last three years with the Colts.
Associated Press
routine.
Ballard said Gore actually broke his thumb during that Buffalo game and doctors told him they could repair it by inserting a pin. While Gore never hinted publicly he was hurt, it was a different story behind closed doors.
“Frank said ‘I’m a football player, I’m playing,’” Ballard said.
Four days later, Gore was back on the field against Denver. Three weeks later, Gore played in his 48th and final game with the Colts – a 24-carry, 100-yard performance that left him just 76 yards short of passing Curtis Martin for No. 4.
The only other players ahead of Gore are Emmitt Smith, Walter Payton and Barry Sanders.
His nine 1,000-yard seasons are fifth behind Smith (11), Payton, Sanders and Martin (10), and he holds the league record with 12 consecutive seasons with 1,200 yards from scrimmage.
But he was always about more than numbers.
“He’s a legend in my mind,” new Colts coach Frank Reich said. “He set the standard for on what backs did in (pass) protection.”
And even though, he still wants a ring, he’s not willing to sacrifice his principles to get one.
“I know I still can play, and I know I want to help a team,” he said in late December. “I don’t want to just be part of a team, I want to help a team, and I don’t want anyone to say I rode the bench to get a ring.”