Bill Fralic

Born in Penn Hills, Pennsylvania, Fralic played high school football at Penn Hills High School 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 and Mike Munchak as a first team offensive lineman. Fralic was named the male high school athlete of the year by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.[2]

After high school, the highly recruited Fralic attended the University of Pittsburgh on a football scholarship. While at Pitt, he played offensive tackle for the Pathers 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 pancake his opponents when blocking. Fralic's teammates at Pitt included future Pro Bowl tackle Jimbo Covert and future Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino.

In the 1985 NFL Draft, Fralic was selected by the Atlanta Falcons 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 in 1986 and 1987, and was named to the Pro Bowl from 1986 to 1989. During this time, the 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m), 280 lb (127 kg) 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, almost doubling his pay to $1.6 million for the 1993 season. The 1989 action figure of Fralic, from the Starting Lineup 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 alone it’s on the $200-$300 price range.

In 1986, Fralic was one of six football players in the twenty-man battle royal at WrestleMania 2, in which Andre the Giant was the victor. He briefly returned to the World Wrestling Federation on July 4, 1993, to participate in the Stars and Stripes Challenge aboard the USS Intrepid, trying to bodyslam the 550-pound WWF champion, Yokozuna.

Fralic was a color commentator for Falcons radio broadcasts from 1995 to 1997, and commentated Pittsburgh Panther broadcasts from 2004 to 2010.

Fralic died at the age of 56 on December 13, 2018 from cancer.[3][4][5]

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.

• The Pennsylvania Football News All-Century Team Retrieved 2009-05-01.
• 'We Can Clean It Up' Atlanta Falcon Bill Fralic is making it his business to rid the NFL of steroids Retrieved 2009-05-01.
• Perils Of A New Era Retrieved 2009-05-01.
• Fralic not surprised by recent allegations Retrieved 2009-05-01.