49ers' Christian McCaffrey didn't ask for No. 21 out of respect for Frank Gore

Running back Christian McCaffrey had multiple reasons for embracing the No. 23 jersey after he was traded to the San Francisco 49ers last week. 

"Frank Gore (his No. 21) is not officially retired, but he did some pretty good things around here," Niners general manager John Lynch explained during an appearance on San Francisco radio station KNBR, per David Bonilla of 49ers WebZone. "And the owner (CEO Jed York) is a big fan of Frank. On that one, Jed said, 'Hey, you can have Christian reach out to Frank and see if Frank would allow it.'

"I told Christian that, and Christian said, 'Nah, I've got too much respect for him. I'll just take 23. I think I like 23 anyhow.' Twenty-one would be cool with Frank, with Deion [Sanders], but he didn't want to go there, and I appreciate Christian for that."

Fellow 49ers running back Jeff Wilson Jr. currently wears the No. 22 that McCaffrey rocked with the Carolina Panthers until the trade that occurred before last weekend. Interestingly, Lynch added during his comments that he thinks the NFL is against players acquired in the middle of seasons via trades and free agency paying new teammates for jersey numbers. That makes sense, considering fans around the country will have already purchased jerseys featuring accurate numbers shortly before an ongoing campaign starts. 

Per Pro-Football-Reference, Gore holds the franchise records of 11,073 rushing yards and 2,442 carries. His 64 rushing touchdowns rank second to Joe Perry's mark of 68.