Pittsburgh Post Gazette's all time Fab 22

[BradlyPitt]

Post-Gazette All-Time Fab 22 | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Take a look at the Post-Gazette's all-time Fabulous 22, the all-time 22 top high school football players in the WPIAL and City League.

newsinteractive.post-gazette.com

for those that don't know, the newspaper has an all star team released every Thanksgiving of the top 22 players that had the best season in the WPIAL and City League each year called the Fabulous 22

the list has what they felt were the best 22 all time since the Fab 22 began in 1980 so guys like Montana, Dorsett, or Marino weren't eligible

did they get the list right in your opinion? should it have been based more on what they did in high school rather than factoring in their college and pro career?

imo I don't think Gronk belongs, he played one season in the WPIAL and caught 8 total passes

 

[BradlyPitt]

ignored thread with a great topic but if I say 2022 PR is boring I get attacked by the forum hall monitors LOL

 

[northalleghenytiger]

I’m going to be honest and say that I don’t care for fab 22. Belle Vernon had 3 players on it last year and only came up with 12 points in the wpial championship game. Mike white may be my least favorite Pittsburgh writer. Have you seen his weekly Q and As? People ask him questions and he mocks them. Seems like an entitled whiner to me.

 

[BradlyPitt]

I’m going to be honest and say that I don’t care for fab 22. Belle Vernon had 3 players on it last year and only came up with 12 points in the wpial championship game. Mike white may be my least favorite Pittsburgh writer. Have you seen his weekly Q and As? People ask him questions and he mocks them. Seems like an entitled whiner to me.

Mike White does not make the Fab 22 all himself, it's him and the other high school writers plus input from high school and college coaches

I like Mike White's podcast, but yeah he comes off bad in his chat, but I thought you would like him because he is definitley biased towards the North Hills area in his coverage, I mean he picked Hempfield at Shaler as the game of the week this past Friday

Devin Whitlock and Quintin Martin were definitely deserving of the Fab 22 last year, you can't argue that

as for the all time Fab 22, they had a panel of several writers, current and former coaches so again it wasn't just Mike White that made this list

 

[northalleghenytiger]

Yeah gronk being on here is weird, although I guess I’m not sure about other TEs

kind of unfortunate what happened to rushel shell, he was a beast.

I mean most of these guys were in the NFL so they were all good in high school, I’m just struggling remembering how some of these guys did in high school. Starting in 1980 definitely hurts the list a little bit

 

[Stalker]

Trib rules.

 

[northalleghenytiger]

Trib rules.

That’s what I’m saying. You have to pay for the post gazette and I will not support Mike white

 

[BradlyPitt]

Trib rules.

how so?

 

[RoverNation05]

The list is subscriber only. Any chance us in eastern PA can at least get the names?

 

[Stalker]

how so?

What?

 

[BradlyPitt]

The list is subscriber only. Any chance us in eastern PA can at least get the names?

oh maybe that's why the thread got zero response haha

1. Bill Fralic
2. Lavar Arrington
3. Aaron Donald
4. Darrelle Revis
5. Terrelle Pryor
6. Curtis Martin
7. Ty Law
8. Tyler Boyd
9. Sean Gilbert
10. Sean Lee
11. Paul Pozluszny
12. Brian Davis
13. Brandon Short
14. Steve Breaston
15. Major Harris
16. Phil Jurkovec
17. Rob Gronkowski
18. Tyler Palko
19. Marc Bulger
20. Rushel Shell
21. Jeff Christy
22. Mark Kelso

this was the opening paragraph before the list...

The first Post-Gazette Fabulous 22 all-star football team was selected in 1980. So, if you took all the Fab 22 teams over the years, and selected the 22 best players, you probably would have a terrific team.

Introducing the “All-Time Fabulous 22.”

The Fabulous 22 is picked every year by the P-G and is made up of the top 22 players in the WPIAL and City League. To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Fab 22, the Post-Gazette put together an “All-Time Fabulous 22”. The top 22 players were selected by a committee made up of 17 current high school coaches in the district, four former coaches and six current and former P-G scholastic sports staff members. Each member of the committee selected 22 players, in order of preference. Note that the “All-Time Fab 22” is made up of only players from 1980 on, when the Fab 22 started. Players before 1980 were not eligible.

The list of top 22 all-timers (from 1980 on) is beyond impressive. It includes two members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame (and possibly three more in the future). Also included are six first-round NFL draft picks, including two No. 2 overall picks and a No. 3; two College Football Hall of Fame members; a player who came close to winning the Heisman Trophy; four Super Bowl champs; a number of college All-Americans; and a number of Pro Bowl players.

Listed are the top 22 players in order of their votes, and the year that they were selected to the Fab 22.

 

[BradlyPitt]

some guys like Jason Taylor out of Woodland Hills weren't selected to the Fab 22, Mike White said he wasn't good in high school

 

[BradlyPitt]

What?

you said "Trib rules"

how does it rule?

 

[RoverNation05]

So I’ll bite and say something controversial. I know Jim Render loves him, but both from following statewide football in the mid 00s and from the state champ project stuff I’ve researched - wouldn’t everybody at the time have taken Justin King and Eugene Jarvis over Sean Lee? Obviously he was a much better player in the long run, that’s not my point. But as a player in the WPIAL, I don’t recall him being considered at that level.

Agree on Gronk. And on Woodland Hills guys, doesn’t George Novak also say that about Jason Taylor? Like, he recruited him out of the hallways to play as a junior or senior?

Other name that feels missing is Curtis Bray from Gateway, who I think was parade national player of the year in the 80s. Ron Graham from Penn Hills is another guy that feels missing, probably because his college career was a disappointment.

 

[2020sports]

Yes- this is tricky, with an "all time" title, not really accurate- maybe better to be Best from 1980 to ? 2020"

agreed on no gronk-

and yes, bradley- the PG stuff is tricky cuz people arent able to open- thx for cutting and pasting- curious what year was this "all time list?"

 

[BradlyPitt]

Yes- this is tricky, with an "all time" title, not really accurate- maybe better to be Best from 1980 to ? 2020"

agreed on no gronk-

and yes, bradley- the PG stuff is tricky cuz people arent able to open- thx for cutting and pasting- curious what year was this "all time list?"

it was made in December 2020

 

[BradlyPitt]

So I’ll bite and say something controversial. I know Jim Render loves him, but both from following statewide football in the mid 00s and from the state champ project stuff I’ve researched - wouldn’t everybody at the time have taken Justin King and Eugene Jarvis over Sean Lee? Obviously he was a much better player in the long run, that’s not my point. But as a player in the WPIAL, I don’t recall him being considered at that level.

Agree on Gronk. And on Woodland Hills guys, doesn’t George Novak also say that about Jason Taylor? Like, he recruited him out of the hallways to play as a junior or senior?

Other name that feels missing is Curtis Bray from Gateway, who I think was parade national player of the year in the 80s. Ron Graham from Penn Hills is another guy that feels missing, probably because his college career was a disappointment.

Sean was a bit of a late bloomer, he was good his junior year and then a dominant player his senior year on both sides of the ball, he was underrated

he wasn't highly recruited and was said to be too slow to be a safety, too small to be a linebacker at the next level

I think Justin King and Eugene Jarvis had an argument to be on the list over somebody like Rushel Shell, both were better than him in college and King played in the NFL for a few years

Shell had big rushing totals because he got close to 40 carries a game

I think Novak saw Taylor in his yard just driving by and asked if he played football, he was not selected to the Fab 22 while in high school so he wasn't eligible for all time Fab 22

the list heavily favors guys that had good college careers and made it to the NFL, that's why Bray or other guys didn't make it

Mike White said they considered basing the list on just their high school careers, but they couldn't justify having somebody like Fort Cherry's Mike Vernillo on the list, who for years was the WPIAL's all time leading rusher over somebody like Curtis Martin who just played one year in high school

 

[steelcurtain55.]

Brian Davis is way too low on this list.

If you're just going by HS - he's right with Fralic and Arrington.

Most are too young to know how good he was.

https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nca...rs-dre-kirkpatrick/15jwcwurcdetw1h2kcwlhe3zv0

 

[RoverNation05]

Brian Davis is why lists like this are important and why I don’t like the lens of “who was eventually a great NFL player” as the criteria. If you want to celebrate high school football, that’s the game you’re celebrating, and I’d argue that history is important. It’s up to lists and retrospectives like this so Brian Davis being one of the best athletes in America doesn’t get forgotten. That’s why i wrote a million words about Dan Kendra III and Austin Scott on these boards over the years. If you don’t keep the information and stories available how good these guys were, it totally gets lost to time. Yeah, it’s cool, Lavar Arrington and Derrelle Revis were awesome. But I don’t think that’s entirely the point of this.

 

[Hausmann1978]

So I’ll bite and say something controversial. I know Jim Render loves him, but both from following statewide football in the mid 00s and from the state champ project stuff I’ve researched - wouldn’t everybody at the time have taken Justin King and Eugene Jarvis over Sean Lee? Obviously he was a much better player in the long run, that’s not my point. But as a player in the WPIAL, I don’t recall him being considered at that level.

Agree on Gronk. And on Woodland Hills guys, doesn’t George Novak also say that about Jason Taylor? Like, he recruited him out of the hallways to play as a junior or senior?

Other name that feels missing is Curtis Bray from Gateway, who I think was parade national player of the year in the 80s. Ron Graham from Penn Hills is another guy that feels missing, probably because his college career was a disappointment.

If we are talking just highschool Dorian Bell,
Rushell shell, and Eric kasperovich would have an argument. Jothan Baldwin had to have just missed it too.

 

[BradlyPitt]

If we are talking just highschool Dorian Bell,
Rushell shell, and Eric kasperovich would have an argument. Jothan Baldwin had to have just missed it too.

they had a list of about 50 guys or so that were considered, I remember Baldwin and Kasper were on it but I can't find that list

 

[BradlyPitt]

Brian Davis is why lists like this are important and why I don’t like the lens of “who was eventually a great NFL player” as the criteria. If you want to celebrate high school football, that’s the game you’re celebrating, and I’d argue that history is important. It’s up to lists and retrospectives like this so Brian Davis being one of the best athletes in America doesn’t get forgotten. That’s why i wrote a million words about Dan Kendra III and Austin Scott on these boards over the years. If you don’t keep the information and stories available how good these guys were, it totally gets lost to time. Yeah, it’s cool, Lavar Arrington and Derrelle Revis were awesome. But I don’t think that’s entirely the point of this.

who would you take off the list and put on?

Davis is always brought up in any conversation revolving around the best high school player to come out of the WPIAL, I don't think he'll be forgotten at least not for a long time

the most common names I've seen be called the best they ever saw were Davis, Arrington, and Pryor

Curtis Bray was also a name that was considered and some other names that were considered Dorian Dickerson, AQ Shipley, Miles Sanders, Jordan Whitehead, Robert Foster, Bruce Gradkowski