INDIANAPOLIS – When the Colts skill players take the field on Sunday, Frank Gore will be seven years the elder to T.Y. Hilton and Andrew Luck.

Mention the number 33, Gore's age in years, to the veteran running back and he usually cuts the question off.

His quarterback is also tired of hearing about Gore's age, too.

"We probably talk too much about age," Luck says after being asked specifically about Gore. "He is young at heart and he just goes out and plays hard.

"He is as hard a worker as anybody I've ever played with. I think you would be hard pressed to find someone who cares more about football and the team. Everything that is awesome about football, Frank embodies."

Gore is a decade older than the new center he will be running behind in 2016.

Thinking about a post-football future in scouting, Gore had heard of Ryan Kelly before the Colts called the Alabama center's name back in April's Round One of the NFL Draft.

When Gore did see Kelly was the pick for the Colts, he contacted some scouts from the 49ers---the team Gore spent a decade with and an organization known for recent offensive line success through the draft.

"They were like, 'Man, you got one of the best lineman in the draft,'" Gore said, relaying what the 49ers' scouts told the team's franchise leading running back.

It did not take long for Gore to see some of his old self in Kelly.

"You can tell that he really cares about the game," Gore says of his new center. "He really loves it.

"What I like about him is, for being a young guy, he came in and you couldn't tell that he was a young guy. He gets to the point of attack fast. He's very athletic. He can move very well."

On Sunday, Gore will start his 77th consecutive game, the longest active streak for an NFL running back. The list severely drops off behind him: 64-Alfred Morris, 42-Lamar Miller, 22-Doug Martin.

The simple question to Gore is, how? How is he able to do it?

Chuck Pagano compares Gore to one of the game's most passionate players ever.

"Very reminiscent of Ray Lewis," Pagano says of a comparison for Gore. "Ray did not want to take any plays off. Ray did not want to take any days off. He felt like in order to play really well on Sunday, you needed to put the time in during the week: Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. He wasn't afraid to go take reps on the (scout) team. When he's out there, nobody else came out and Frank's no different. He's wired the same way and he's got the same mindset.

"(Frank's) relentless in the classroom and relentless on the practice field. We try to manage our plus thirty guys from a rep standpoint. We want them fresh on Sundays. He's a guy that does not want to come out. He comes to work every single day and puts the time in which is necessary to play at the level he's played at and to continue to play at that level."