William P. Fralic Jr. ( ) (October 31, 1962 – December 13, 2018) was an American professional
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...
player who was a
guard
Guard or guards may refer to:
Professional occupations
* Bodyguard, who protects an individual from personal assault
* Crossing guard, who stops traffic so pedestrians can cross the street
* Lifeguard, who rescues people from drowning
* Prison gu ...
for the
Atlanta Falcons
The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta. The Falcons compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South division. The Falcon ...
and
Detroit Lions
The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at For ...
of the
National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the majo ...
(NFL) from 1985 to 1993. He played
college football
College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football in the United States, American football rules first gained populari ...
for the
Pittsburgh Panthers
The Pittsburgh Panthers, commonly also referred to as the Pitt Panthers, are the athletic teams representing the University of Pittsburgh, although the term is colloquially used to refer to other aspects of the university such as alumni, facu ...
.
Early years
Born in
Penn Hills, Pennsylvania
Penn Hills is a township with home rule status in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 41,059 as of the 2020 census. Penn Hills is the second-largest municipality in Allegheny County, after Pittsburgh.
History
In 178 ...
, Fralic played
high school football
High school football (french: football au lycée) is gridiron football played by high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both countries, but its popularity is declining, partl ...
at
Penn Hills High School
Penn Hills High School is a public secondary school located in Penn Hills, east of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It is the sole high school operated by the Penn Hills School District. In the 2018–19 school year, enrollment was reporte ...
and graduated in 1981. Readers of the Pennsylvania Football News named him to the "All Century" team of Pennsylvania high school football players. He is listed beside
Chuck Bednarik
Charles Philip Bednarik (May 1, 1925 – March 21, 2015), nicknamed "Concrete Charlie", was an American professional football player in the National Football League (NFL). He has been ranked one of the hardest hitting tacklers in NFL history a ...
and
Mike Munchak
Michael Anthony Munchak (born March 5, 1960) is an American professional football coach and former player. A graduate of Penn State, Munchak played left guard for the Houston Oilers from 1982 until 1993 and was a nine-time selection to the Pro B ...
as a first-team offensive lineman. Fralic was named the male high school athlete of the year by the ''
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'', also known simply as the PG, is the largest newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Descended from the ''Pittsburgh Gazette'', established in 1786 as the first newspaper published west of the Alle ...
.''
College
After high school, the highly recruited Fralic attended the
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the univers ...
on a football
scholarship
A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need.
Scholars ...
. While at Pitt, he played
offensive tackle
Offensive may refer to:
* Offensive, the former name of the Dutch political party Socialist Alternative
* Offensive (military), an attack
* Offensive language
** Fighting words or insulting language, words that by their very utterance inflict in ...
for the
Panthers
Panther may refer to:
Large cats
*Pantherinae, the cat subfamily that contains the genera ''Panthera'' and ''Neofelis''
**''Panthera'', the cat genus that contains tigers, lions, jaguars and leopards.
***Jaguar (''Panthera onca''), found in Sout ...
and was named a consensus
All-American his junior and senior seasons. He was known for the 'Pancake Block' which was termed for the way he would flatten his opponents when blocking. Fralic's teammates at Pitt included future Pro Bowl tackle
Jimbo Covert
James Paul "Jimbo" Covert (born March 22, 1960) is an American former professional football player who was an offensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL) for eight seasons during the 1980s and early 1990s. Covert played college foot ...
and future Hall of Fame quarterback
Dan Marino
Daniel Constantine Marino Jr. (born September 15, 1961) is an American former football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 17 seasons with the Miami Dolphins. After a successful college career at Pittsburgh and b ...
.
NFL career
In the
1985 NFL Draft
The 1985 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. The draft was held April 30 and May 1, 1985, at the Omni Park Central Hotel in New York City, New York. The league also held a ...
, Fralic was selected by the
Atlanta Falcons
The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta. The Falcons compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South division. The Falcon ...
with the second overall pick. He became a starter for the Falcons at offensive guard during his rookie season. Fralic went on to be named
All-Pro
All-Pro is an honor bestowed upon professional American football players that designates the best player at each position during a given season. All-Pro players are typically selected by press organizations, who select an "All-Pro team," a list t ...
in 1986 and 1987, and was named to the
Pro Bowl
The National Football League All-Star Game (1939–1942), Pro Bowl (1951–2022), or Pro Bowl Games (starting in 2023) is an annual event held by the National Football League (NFL) featuring the league's star players.
The format has changed thro ...
from 1986 to 1989. During this time, the , Fralic developed a reputation as a ferocious run blocker.
At the end of his NFL career, Fralic was one of the first players to take advantage of the new free agent system and jumped from the Falcons to the
Detroit Lions
The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at For ...
, almost doubling his pay to $1.6 million for the 1993 season. The 1989 action figure of Fralic, from the
Starting Lineup
In sports, a starting lineup is an official list of the set of players who will participate in the event when the game begins. The players in the starting lineup are commonly referred to as ''starters'', whereas the others are ''substitutes'' ...
Kenner toy line, is the 'Holy Grail' for collectors. As of 2020, a loose figure (not in the package) can fetch as much as $900 US dollars. The trading card that came with the figure is worth $200-$300.
Professional wrestling and color commentary
In 1986, Fralic was one of six football players in the twenty-man battle royal at
WrestleMania 2
WrestleMania 2 was the second annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). The event took place on April 7, 1986 (a Monday), making it the only WrestleMania that was not ...
, in which Andre the Giant was the victor. He briefly returned to the
World Wrestling Federation
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and var ...
on July 4, 1993, to participate in the Stars and Stripes Challenge aboard the , trying to bodyslam the 550-pound WWF champion,
Yokozuna
, or , is the top division of the six divisions of professional sumo. Its size is fixed at 42 wrestlers (''rikishi''), ordered into five ranks according to their ability as defined by their performance in previous tournaments.
This is the on ...
.
Fralic was a
color commentator
A color commentator or expert commentator is a sports commentator who assists the main ( play-by-play) commentator, typically by filling in when play is not in progress. The phrase "colour commentator" is primarily used in Canadian English and ...
for Falcons radio broadcasts from 1995 to 1997, and commentated
Pittsburgh Panther broadcasts from 2004 to 2010.
Personal life and death
Fralic died at the age of 56 on December 13, 2018 from cancer.
During his NFL career, Fralic publicly opposed the use of steroids by NFL players and advocated more rigorous and more random testing to detect steroid use. In May 1989, he testified before the U.S. Senate that steroid use in the NFL was rampant. The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee at the time, Sen.
Joe Biden of Delaware, was said to have found Fralic's testimony "refreshing and believable."
In Atlanta, Fralic ran Bill Fralic Insurance Services, which he began during his playing days with the Falcons in 1989.
Fralic had an unusual provision in his first contract with the Falcons that guaranteed that the team would pay him $150,000 per year for 40 years, even after he was no longer with the Falcons and his playing career was over. This provision came about because Fralic's father, Bill Fralic Sr., insisted that his son have security in his contract.
References
External links
The Pennsylvania Football News All-Century TeamRetrieved 2009-05-01.
Retrieved 2009-05-01.
*
ttps://archive.today/20130102100947/http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1138076/1/index.htm Perils Of A New EraRetrieved 2009-05-01.
Fralic not surprised by recent allegationsRetrieved 2009-05-01.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fralic, Bill
1962 births
2018 deaths
All-American college football players
American football offensive guards
Atlanta Falcons announcers
Atlanta Falcons players
College football announcers
College Football Hall of Fame inductees
Detroit Lions players
National Conference Pro Bowl players
National Football League announcers
Sportspeople from Pittsburgh
People from Allegheny County, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh Panthers football players
Players of American football from Pittsburgh