Flowery Branch -- For the second time in less than a month, Falcons players and coach Bobby Petrino were forced to speak about the legal fallout of embattled quarterback Michael Vick; a player Warrick Dunn called an "ex-teammate."

Veterans Dunn, Alge Crumpler, Wayne Gandy and Keith Brooking either volunteered or were asked by the team to address Vick's decision to plead guilty to federal dogfighting charges Monday in Richmond, Va. Prison time and an NFL suspension are likely to follow his formal admission of guilt.

"To me ... he needs to worry about his life," said Dunn, who keeps in regular contact with Vick. "As an ex-teammate, right now he definitely wants the guys on this football team to move on and move forward. You can't stay in a certain place. He expects us to go out and play hard. Do we wish he was here? Of course but he circumstances say otherwise."

All except Gandy took part in a similar news conference on the first day of training camp in August, hoping then to absorb the attention Vick cast on the team. In a sequel, the team again tried to steer questioning toward savvy veterans.

Crumpler was the most emotional.

"Mike and I came in at the same time so I think I'm a relevant source," said Crumpler, who was selected in the second round of the 2001 draft, a round later than Vick. "Mike's very human. This whole ordeal has kind of dehumanized him the last couple months. He is hurting. I do know that. He'll have to get through this. Who knows that the future is going to hold but I myself am not going to judge the man.

"Our team definitely has to deal with it and we're going to deal with it. I can't say what our future record's going to be. To me, that doesn't matter. What matters is we come in, do what we're suppose to do, play hard and we build on this process. It's not going to be an easy process. It's not been an easy process for myself. It's not been an easy process for my teammates.

"There is no blueprint for this. This is, by far, one of the toughest things I've ever had to witness and read about and have it affect my teammates on a daily basis."

Though Crumpler did have a solid relationship with Vick, he admitted that the quarterback was not as close to his teammates as he was to friends he grew up with. Some of those friends, Tony Taylor, Purnell Peace and Quanis Phillips, were charged along with Vick and have pleaded guilty as part of deals to cooperate with investigators.

They all confessed that Vick founded and funded a dogfighting enterprise known as Bad Newz Kennels and that Vick took part in staging dogfights at a property he owns in Surry County, Va. and traveled to others. He also helped execute dogs that lost fights or did not show a willingness to fight.

"Mike was loyal to a fault and I think that really hurt him in this situation," Crumpler said.

Cornerback DeAngelo Hall, who grew up near Vick and also attended Virginia Tech, said players were placed under a gag order when reporters approached him for his reaction to Vick's plea agreement. Petrino and team officials said no gag order was issued and that players were given to option to speak if they felt comfortable doing so.

Vick's replacement, Joey Harrington, was one of those players.

"Our stance as a team has been to support Mike but to stay together as a team," Harrington said. "The team has done a very good job, and the organization, of being very open and honest from the beginning. We've fielded all questions and we've been able to stay together as a team and move on because of that."

Petrino, who took the Falcons' job in January, has a short history with Vick but in the time they spent together at mini camps and offseason workouts, he said he grew to admire Vick and his work ethic. Petrino said he wasn't mad with Vick or upset that he probably won't ever get to coach him.

"I've got a lot of emotions going on but the hardest thing for me is in the time period I worked with Michael he gave us everything that he had," Petrino said. "He was at every meeting, in every workout, he spent extra time on his own. So I'm disappointed in the entire situation, no question about that."

Brooking said keeping the team focused is a challenge -- but it's also a must.

"We have the leaders to realize that no matter what comes our way we have to move forward and keep those blinders on," Brooking said. "We owe it to [owner Arthur] Blank, coach Petrino, this man sitting here beside me (Dunn) and we owe it to our fans to move forward."