White's T-shirt, Hall's face paint show support for Vick

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Chris Graythen/Getty ImagesFalcons receiver Roddy White shows his support for jailed teammate Michael Vick after a touchdown.

Cornerback DeAngelo Hall, who played with Vick at Virginia Tech and in Atlanta, ran onto the field holding up a poster of Vick and played the game with "MV7" written on the shade under both eyes.

Late in the first quarter, receiver Roddy White pulled up his jersey after hauling in a 33-yard touchdown pass from Chris Redman, revealing a black shirt with the words "Free Mike Vick" in white letters.

"That was homemade. I did that myself," White said. "It ain't too much to say, you know. The team misses him and we really need him this season. There ain't too much more to say about it."

White appeared to be fighting his emotions.

Asked if the day had been emotional, White said simply "Yeah," before ending the interview.

Hall said the players wanted to show they were thinking of Vick as more than a football player.

"We did that for the simple fact we wanted to let him know we're still thinking about him," Hall said. "That was my personal thing for doing it.

"I don't want to say this franchise doesn't want to acknowledge the situation, but that's kind of the way you feel. All his pictures all gone, no more jerseys, no more nothing. We just wanted to let him know we're still thinking about him. We care about him as a human being, not just as a football player and as a running quarterback."

Vick was sentenced to 23 months in federal prison earlier Monday on his guilty plea to dogfighting changes. He will miss at least two full seasons while serving his time and is unlikely to play again for the Falcons.

Hall said he wanted to send "a tribute to Mike" but wanted to avoid any thought the Vick sentencing affected the team's play.

"We had a game to play and we had to do what we needed to do and it didn't have anything to do with Mike," Hall said. "Mike took the blame for the losses when he was here, and he didn't throw the way y'all wanted him to throw or didn't complete as many passes.

"We're still blaming him for losses we're getting as a team and he's not even here to play. It's a catch-22 he can't win. I just wanted to let him know we're still thinking about him and we still love him."

Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press

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