Sixteen Vigor High School alumni have played in at least one NFL regular season game, according to profootballreference.com. This makes Vigor the Alabama high school that has produced the most NFL players.
But Vigor may soon share that title with a mobile school about 5 miles from Prichard Institution.
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The profootballreference.com roster shows Murphy and Woodlawn as Vigor’s No. 2 in Alabama with 15 NFL players each, and the Panthers have a rookie on the Las Vegas Raiders’ preseason roster.
If defensive tackle Neil Farrell Jr. plays this season, he would tie Murphy with Vigor for first place at Alabama. Farrell joined Las Vegas as a fourth-round selection in the April 30 NFL Draft.
Four Alabama high schools each had three alumni on NFL rosters when training camps opened — Central in Phenix City, Hoover, James Clemens in Madison and Oxford.
According to a BeenVerified survey, the high school with the most players on NFL training camp rosters was IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, a private school that has students from across the country. IMG had 19 players in training camp, ahead of 16 from St. Thomas Aquinas in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and 12 from American Heritage in Plantation, Fla. With 11, Allen High School in Allen, Texas was the only other school with more than eight players.
By state, NFL training camp rosters had 336 former high school players from Texas, 293 from Florida, 285 from California, and 232 from Georgia. Then came a big drop to No. 5, with Ohio at 117.
Alabama high schools had 87 players on training camp rosters, which ranked ninth, with Louisiana, North Carolina and Pennsylvania between Ohio and Alabama.
BeenVerified also studied the league’s entire 102-season history and found that Fork Union Military Academy, a private college-prep boarding school in Virginia, produced 63 NFL players, the most among high schools in the country.
Long Beach Polytechnic placed second as the top public school on the list. The school in Long Beach, Calif., has 59 alumni who have appeared in at least one NFL regular season game. Only one other school had at least 40 – Saint Thomas Aquinas with 42.
In addition to Vigor, Murphy and Woodlawn, seven other Alabama high schools have had at least 10 NFL players – Anniston and Lee-Huntsville with 12 each, Sidney Lanier, Carver-Montgomery and Central-Phenix City with 11 each and Lee-Montgomery and Blount with 10 each.
Lee-Montgomery could add to his 2022 total with defensive end Sam Williams on the Dallas Cowboys as a 2022 second-round pick. Williamson could get his 10th NFL alumnus this season with cornerback Roger McCreary on the Tennessee Titans as a 2022 second-round draft pick.
Farrell, Williams and McCreary are among 16 Alabama high school rookies still on NFL rosters.
Overall, 708 players from 259 high schools in Alabama have played in at least one regular season game in the NFL, which ranks 12th among states.
California, with 3,116, had the most high school players who played in the NFL. Texas with 2,709, Florida with 1,833, Ohio with 1,563, Pennsylvania with 1,446, Illinois with 1,064 and Georgia with 1,052 also have more than 1,000.
Between Georgia and Alabama are Louisiana, Michigan, New York and New Jersey.
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.
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