Stephen Holder

stephen.holder@indystar.com

DAVIE, Fla. – The unforgiving South Florida sun rose barely an hour ago, but the oppressive humidity is already in midday form.

Outside a nondescript warehouse in this Fort Lauderdale suburb early last week, a half-dozen NFL players are being put through a varied circuit of exercises.

Only one of them is among the leading rushers in NFL history.

Indianapolis Colts running back Frank Gore can claim another distinction: At 33, he’s the oldest, by at least a couple of years.

The workout is off to a brutal start, with a trainer putting them through a so-called warm-up that includes all manner of awkward, painful-looking calisthenics. Eventually, Gore, dripping with sweat, pipes up.

“Hey, man!” he exclaims. “This is a warm-up? If this was our team (offseason) workout, shoot, we'd be done right now.”

But you do not amass 12,040 rushing yards while playing one of the most physically demanding positions in American sport by failing to prepare. There are younger players here today, too, among them Bengals running back Giovani Bernard, Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater and Colts cornerback Vontae Davis. But Gore keeps pace with the others, some nearly a decade his junior. In Gore’s mind, this has become the most important measuring stick for a back for whom Mother Nature poses an increasingly daunting question:

How long can he keep doing this?

“But, see, that’s why I like working with young guys,” Gore says between reps. “You can't even tell (the difference), can you?”

Here, in this warehouse parking lot, and under the bright lights of Lucas Oil Stadium, the answer, consistently, is no.

* * *

Thirty-three-year old running backs who are their teams’ primary ball carriers are exceedingly rare. Thirty-three-year old running backs who reach the 1,000-yard plateau – where Gore is setting his sights for 2016 – are football’s pink unicorn.

No running back has eclipsed 1,000 yards in a season at 33 or older since Redskins great John Riggins in 1984 (Riggins was 35). Gore, playing for a team beset by quarterback injuries and an underperforming offensive line, fell 33 yards short with 967 yards in 2015 at 32 years old.

Gore is not one for obsessing over others’ opinions. But never make the mistake of believing he is unaware of the sentiments. After his workout ends, the conversation turns to a frequent topic around the Colts: the age of their starting running back and his career-low 3.7 yards per carry last season.

“Believe me, I listen,” Gore said. “When I hear it, that’s when I attack my training. When I’m tired, I tell myself what the people are saying about me. In that second workout when I’m saying, ‘Man, I don’t want to do this.’ I remind myself, ‘They’re saying you’re old. They’re saying you’re 33. They’re saying you can’t do it this year.’ I play games with myself off that stuff.”

To be clear, when Gore mentions his “second workout,” he’s talking about his second workout ... of the day. He’ll return to the field in the evening several times a week, adding football-specific field work to his regimen of speed, agility and strength training in the early morning.

This has been the regimen for 12 years now – 12 damn good years. It’s worked, without fail, and Gore’s not about to let age become a mitigating factor. So, after his 3½ hours of combined work in the morning, Gore heads back out for a second helping.

The making of Frank Gore: 'I've been through so much'

“I try to do two workouts three times a week,” Gore said. “(In the second workouts), I do more agility, jump cuts, moves, working my feet in small spaces. Just trying to imitate like when I’m in the hole.

“It makes my mind stronger going into camp. Right now, everybody’s working. You see there are other guys here. But who’s doing that extra work? I tell myself, ‘I know that guy over there is probably not doing it.’ So when the time comes and camp is getting harder, I think about what I already did.”

Not everyone possesses this level of relentlessness. Gore, it seems, always has.

He recalled a youth basketball game where he once displayed a little too much enthusiasm, resulting in his ejection. What happened was not necessarily something to celebrate, but it was certainly understandable. See, to forbid Gore to compete is kind of like asking him to give up oxygen.

“It was a close game, but it was (slipping away),” Gore recounted. “Me and another guy were going after the ball and we both jumped for it. But I kind of jumped into him with my shoulder. So, they end up throwing me out. I got up and threw a water bottle at the wall and cussed.

“I think I was 13.”

Twenty years later, Gore is as competitive as ever. Just ask Bernard, the 24-year-old who uses the same South Florida training facility. Gore's clearly rubbing off on those around him.

“For me, when he beats me at something, I say, ‘OK, I gotta step it up,’ ” Bernard said. “Because I know there’s always that level of competition where I say he shouldn’t be able to beat me because he’s 12 years in. … We just love to compete. I think that’s why we’re in the position that we are.”

Said Adam Boily, the director of performance at Bommarito Performance Systems: “I think training gets taken to the next level when the guy next to you is saying, ‘Let’s go! We’re not done!’ ”

That’s Gore.

Status of Frank Gore? He's 'beat to crap'

* * *

How does one develop an indefatigable makeup like this? For Gore, it was forged through unique life experiences that steeled him as a youth. He hails from the projects of the Coconut Grove area in Miami, helping his late mother overcome the drug addiction that once gripped her. The twin knee injuries and a severe learning disability played an important role, too.

There are so many reasons Gore should not be a mere 240 yards shy of cracking the NFL’s list of top-10 rushers. Yet it’s those same obstacles he credits for his ability to remain at the top of his profession all these years.

“Man, I’m in the 'hood growing up, I’m living in this one-bedroom apartment with a single parent, with 13 people in there. Thirteen!” Gore reflects. “I knew that I wasn’t the smartest kid in school, but I knew that I had a way to get out if I did the right things in sports. It has a lot to do with how you grow up. Without the game, what would I be doing? That’s how I still approach it today. That’s why, when I’m in practice, I’m always going hard. I’ve been blessed to make pretty good money over the years. But I still love the game and I want to keep showing people I can play.”

That explains a lot about Gore, like the way he detests defeat. Simply put, the man hates to lose. After a Colts’ loss, he sits and stews in search of answers, often long after his teammates have showered and left.

Colts announce training camp schedule

Still, he’s come a long way since throwing that tantrum on the court 20 years ago. He credits 49ers running backs coach Tom Rathman, who tutored Gore for six seasons in San Francisco. Gore’s outlook on the game used to be much more self-centered and stat-based. It was simple: If he got his yards, it provided a sense of self-worth. But Rathman taught Gore to use a different metric, and Gore has brought the principles with him to Indianapolis. They served him well during a season in which he had to fight for every inch he gained in 2015.

“When I wasn’t getting my yards, I used to be like, '(Forget) this,’ " Gore said. “But (Rathman) made me realize there’s more than just that as a football player. You want your peers to respect you. And I saw that last year even from coaches. I had coaches come up to me after the Patriots game, the Pittsburgh game, a lot of coaches would come up and say, ‘Man, how are you still doing this?’

“Coach Rathman made my game go to a different level.”

If Gore has even a marginally productive season in 2016, he will surpass Hall of Famers Thurman Thomas, Franco Harris, Marcus Allen, Marshall Faulk and Jim Brown on the all-time rushing list.

“Man, I could pass up some of the greats who already have yellow jackets,” Gore said. “I mean, just think about where I came from.”

If it is the respect of his peers Gore truly seeks, what would his peers say to that?

* * *

The speed and agility session has long ended, followed by the hour-plus workout in the weight room, which was succeeded by a final, few parking-lot exercises. When the punishment mercifully ends, Gore takes a seat in the shade atop a cooler and begins to reflect on 2015.

He didn’t duck the obvious. He was mostly honest about the performance of the Colts offensive line and was as elated as anyone to see the position addressed with laser focus in the NFL draft. He thinks first-round pick Ryan Kelly is the real deal at center, and he has high hopes for the line this fall.

“We’ve never had this much competition on the line,” Gore said. “That’s a good thing. That’s how it should be at every position.”

He knows this could be a boon for him, but he doesn’t assume anything. Thus the reason he’ll be back this evening for another workout.

The 2015 season taught Gore and his teammates some difficult lessons. Namely, they learned that expectations and projections aren’t worth the paper or web pages they’re written on. They also learned the difference between being an elite club and an also-ran is razor thin.

“When we signed all those pieces, I think I forgot how hard the game actually was,” Gore said, referring to a free agent splurge that netted the Colts Gore, Andre Johnson, Kendall Langford and others. “I just knew we were going to the Super Bowl. But I forgot that if your group isn’t together as one, it ain’t gonna happen, man. And I think we learned we have to keep No. 12 up, man. He’s a big part of this team.”

No. 12, the newly-minted, highest-paid player in the NFL, quarterback Andrew Luck, will be back this season. It’s a bit cliché to always buy into the storyline about a player returning from injury looking to make up for lost time. But this is different, Gore said. There’s something about Luck’s demeanor that Gore has never seen.

“Watching him in (organized team activities), ooohhh! Did you see him! Oh, my God!” Gore said. “Last year, I didn’t see him like that. I could just tell he was happy to be back on the field. I could tell he was like really, really ready.”

Tony Dungy: Never would've dreamed of the Hall of Fame

There’s more.

“And you know who else? T.Y. Hilton,” Gore said. “Man, this summer, it was crazy. He killed it out there.”

And what about the 33-year old running back people are wondering about?

“Seeing the young guys I train with who are at the top of their position, they’re pushing me,” Gore said. “(Based on) that, I know I have a chance to have a pretty good year.”

Giants running back Rashad Jennings just began his workout with a later shift of players. Gore needles him, saying, “I could probably outdo you right now.” Jennings, as you might expect, responds, “Man, are you crazy?”

In a way, yes, Gore is. Watching him prepare, there’s hardly another way to describe it. Consider the numbers he’s compiled, and the description fits. Remember where he came from, and the word feels appropriate.

And you know what else seems crazy? Betting against Frank Gore.

Follow IndyStar reporter Stephen Holder on Twitter: @HolderStephen.

No Gore-y details

Only two running backs with more than 10,000 career yards exceeded Colts running back Frank Gore's total of 967 rushing yards last season in the 11th year of their career: Emmitt Smith and Walter Payton. Only six had more yards the rest of their careers than Gore, and he should pass three of them quickly this season. (*-Hall of Fame, #-Not year eligible for the Hall of Fame).

Career rushing leaders