A LOOK AT TWO OF SUNDAY’S RAM, RAIDER OPPONENTS : Mouth of South : Bill Fralic, Falcons’ Star Offensive Guard, Is Known to Talk as Bluntly as He Blocks

If you’re tired of those always-say-the-right-thing athletes, spend a few minutes listening to Bill Fralic.

Forget that the Atlanta Falcons’ right guard soon may be the best offensive lineman in the National Football League, if he’s not already.

Forget that this 6-foot 5-inch, 280-pound player isn’t satisfied just to block an opponent. Forget that Falcon running back Gerald Riggs led the NFC in rushing last year--running most of the time behind a rookie named Fralic.

Bill Fralic has a lot of talent, sure, but he stands out in the athletic fraternity because of his candor. Ask this man a question and expect an honest answer. Sometimes, a bluntly honest answer.

Consider the time a reporter from the University of Pittsburgh’s newspaper asked him what he did for fun. Fralic responded that he liked to play golf, drink beer and have intimate relations with women, except he used a common street word for the latter.

The college newspaper printed the quote verbatim. Fralic said he didn’t expect to see his exact words in print, but he wasn’t upset when he did.

It isn’t that he seeks controversy. Fralic apparently just says what’s on his mind. The rest takes care of itself.

A sampling:

Question: The Falcons are 5-1-1 this season after finishing 4-12 in 1985. Has playing football been more fun this year? Answer: Let’s just say it’s less painful. I’ve never really had a whole lot of fun playing football and I don’t have much fun now. The only time I enjoy it at all is when we win, and that’s just that day. It doesn’t last very long. In fact, I wouldn’t even describe that feeling as fun.

There’s nothing fun about being an offensive lineman. Blocking people and so forth, it’s not very glorious. It’s like going to work.

Q: You’ve said you would agree to take a drug test 365 days a year, but you also consider the NFL’s new program to be hypocritical. Why?

A: I think that there’s a bigger problem in the league with steroids than the recreational drugs. I understand the tests (for steroids) are pretty expensive, but the teams don’t care. The owners are there to make money.

They don’t want people taking cocaine because they don’t want them getting caught with cocaine. That might turn off potential customers. That’s not the image the NFL wants to portray. But the league does want to portray the 6-5, 300-pound giants who can bench press 600 pounds. That attracts the right kind of attention . . . never mind what happens to the health of guys who do it because they think they have to to keep up.

Q: You’ve said that your father has been a huge influence in your life. How has he helped your football career?

A. My father is an ex-Marine and a steel worker. He didn’t let my brothers and me get away with much. When we did something wrong--which was pretty often, I guess--he made us pay and usually by physical punishment. I guess that’s why I’m fit to be a football player. I got the crap beat out of me when I was growing up. As I got older, I guess I missed it, so I stayed with football so I can get it every week.

Fralic and Howie Long, the Raiders’ All-Pro defensive end, had just waged one of those wars in the trenches that few but John Madden appreciate. It was the 13th game of Fralic’s rookie season, and the bad fortune of 1985 continued for the Falcons as they blew another lead. The Raiders scored three touchdowns in the second half and won, 34-24.

Atlanta was typically unimpressive. Fralic, playing out of position at tackle, was typically just the opposite.

“He’s a tremendous run-blocker, maybe the best I’ve played against,” Long told the Atlanta Constitution. “I never thought I’d see a guy who was as strong as I was. He’s got great legs, and I think that’s the key to being a great offensive lineman. And does he have great hands! If he gets them on you, it’s all over.”

The Atlanta coaching staff likes to say that Fralic is an offensive lineman with the temperament of a defensive lineman. They say that a lot, but not with the panache of Fralic.

“Football is a collision sport, and when you collide with somebody, you like to have them fall down and not you,” he said. “It’s a game of forcing your will on a guy who’s trying to force his upon you. So I get more satisfaction from flattening a guy than I do from just colliding with a guy and keeping him from making the tackle, even though the results might be the same.”

Bill Fralic Jr. came into the world at 7 pounds 3 ounces, but he was up to 175 pounds by the age of 9 and was a 6-foot, 210-pound seventh grader.

Fralic has two older brothers, both of whom were offensive linemen in college, and a father who demanded a military level of discipline.

Bill Fralic Sr. has worked in a steel mill for 30 years. He’s president of the local union and made sure his son had security written into his contract. Fralic’s four-year, $7.75-million contract includes bonded annual $150,000 payments for the next 40 years.

The senior Fralic demanded that his son stay out the Falcons’ 1985 mini-camp because a deal had not been completed. And he encouraged him to consider a career as a pro wrestler in case negotiations broke down.

He also was happy when his son was the second player chosen in the 1985 draft. He was very happy when his son signed a lucrative contract. But he was less than pleased when he heard his son’s stand on the drug-testing issue. And he was really upset when his son said that Gene Upshaw, the players’ union president, was “full of manure” after Upshaw had said 72% of the players were against drug testing.

“My father didn’t like me bad-mouthing the union at all,” Fralic said. “We need the union to deal with management, but I feel very strongly that drugs should be dealt with and I don’t think it’s a union-vs.-management issue. I think it’s a people-vs.-drugs issue.”

He’s even more adamant about steroid abuse. When he felt frustrated that nothing was being done to curb it, he went straight to the top. He called NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle.

“I called him last spring,” Fralic said. “I knew cocaine was the big thing with marijuana right behind, but I’d never heard him address the issue of steroids. He only cares about what the public thinks. He said he was just looking into the possible drug programs and that he’d just become aware of the steroid problem.

“Those were his words. He said he hoped to address the steroid problem with his new program. But he didn’t.”

Fralic appears to be proof that you don’t need chemical help to succeed in the NFL. He’s a fanatic weight lifter and his strength is evident on the field. At Pitt, he was sixth in the voting for the Heisman Trophy as a junior and eighth after the team’s disappointing season his senior year.

It was quite an accomplishment for an offensive lineman, in any case. Only players who run with, catch or pass the football win that award. There aren’t even any statistics for offensive linemen to accumulate, not that Fralic much cares.

“All the things you learn, the hard work, the striving for excellence as an individual and a team, those are things that interest me about football,” he said.

“It’s not the Heisman Trophy or All-Pro honors. They’re nice, but those aren’t the meaty things in life.”