Journeyman Mostert becomes star for 49ers

SANTACLARA,CALIF. >> Before taking the field each week, Raheem Mostert seeks out motivation.

There it is in a list of all the times he’s been cut by NFL teams. Philadelphia, Miami and Baltimore all let Mostert go in 2015. Cleveland, the Jets and Chicago all sent him packing the following year before he finally ended up on San Francisco’s practice squad.

That unlikely path that saw Mostert get cut almost as many times as he was handed the ball his first three seasons somehow has led to the Super Bowl after he posted one of the greatest postseason performances ever by a running back.

“The journey’s been crazy,” Mostert said. “Not everybody can deal with that type of stress and pain and agony that I went through. But like I said, I kept the faith in not only myself but whoever gave me the opportunity.”

The 49ers are the beneficiaries of that as the former skateboarder and surfer has proven to be skilled enough on his own two feet as an NFL running back when he was fi-nally given the chance. Mo ste rt led the 49 er sin rushing this season with 772 yards and provided the signa-ture performance of his career on the big stage of the NF C championship game when her an for 220 yards and four touchdowns in a 37-20 win over Green Bay on Jan .19 that sent the Nine rs to the Super Bowl. Only Hall of F amer Eric Dickerson has rushed for more yards in a playoff game with 248 for the Rams against Dallas on Jan .4,1986. “He’ s been a special teams player for so long because of his speed, I’ m just so happy that he’ s getting the oppor-tunity to showcase his ability at running back ,” tackle Joe Staley said .“The guy works harder than really anybody, and he’ s been patient. Never really complained about his role, always just shows up, works hard and this is what happens when you accept your role son a team, you don’ t worry about results, you don’ t worry about stats, and then you have a moment like this. He was ready for this the whole season .”