Falcons officials would like to flip the page on Michael Vick's federal indictment and turn the focus to the football team and today's opening of training camp.

"This is a football team," Falcons owner Arthur Blank said. "This is not a circus."

But with their three-time Pro Bowl quarterback barred from training camp and scheduled to make an appearance in a Richmond, Va. courthouse today — just as the Falcons are taking the field for the first practice of the coach Bobby Petrino era — there will be a three-ring feel.

Camp Chaos is not what the Falcons had in mind, but with a crush of local and national media and promised protests from animal rights activists angered by Vick's indictment on charges related to dogfighting, this will be anything but the normal opening of football season in Flowery Branch.

Mark Schlereth, an analyst with ESPN and former 12-year NFL veteran, said Falcons players must accept that Vick is gone.

"We used to have this saying 'That guy's dead.' " Schlereth said about injured or missing teammates. "As bad as that sounds, not in the figurative sense, but the literal sense, that guy is dead, move on. There is nothing we can do. Wish him well, but at the same time you have to focus on what you're trying to accomplish as individual and as a team."

Petrino doesn't want to side-step the fact that Vick has been barred from the team — with pay — while NFL commissioner Roger Goodell's office investigates the allegations in the 18-page indictment.

"We're going to talk about it and make sure we get all of our feelings out in the open," Petrino said. "Then we need to put it behind us and move on."

Schlereth believes that Petrino, who in his first season as an NFL head coach, is up to task.

"I guarantee you that Bobby Petrino feels as though they can win with the people that they have, with or without Michael Vick," said Schlereth, who won a Super Bowl with the Washington Redskins and two with the Denver Broncos. "So I don't think there's a sense of panic."

The Baltimore Ravens have twice been rocked by tumultuous off-the-field problems heading into training camp this decade.

In August of 2005, Jamal Lewis reported to training camp after serving four months in a federal prison and two months in a halfway house for using a cell phone to set up a cocaine deal.

Upon his release from prison, top team officials including Ravens president Dick Cass, general manager Ozzie Newsome and head coach Brian Billick appeared with Lewis at a press conference at a downtown Atlanta hotel.

Before the 2000 season, linebacker Ray Lewis pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstructing a police officer in the aftermath of the post-Super Bowl fight in Buckhead that resulted in two deaths.

The league did not suspend Lewis, but fined him $250,000 for his admitted misconduct.

"We're not a substitute for the courts, " former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue said at the time of the fine.

Lewis led the Ravens to a Super Bowl victory the following season.

Falcons president and general manager Rich McKay was part of another chaotic training camp with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2001 after Tony Dungy was fired as head coach.

"That was beyond bizarre in the three weeks that followed," McKay said. "So I've seen that and yet that team that went beyond bizarre won the Super Bowl."

Blank doesn't hold the view that the Falcons outlook for this season has been severely affected by Vick's situation.

"This is not about one player," Blank said. "It's never been about one player. It is about a football team. It is about an organization that wins on the field. It is about an organization that wins off the field."

Blank is expecting Petrino to galvanize the team, lead them through this tough period and have a fruitful training camp.

"I've heard this from every coach that I've been exposed to in the National Football League, it's not how you deal with the good days, it's how you deal with the bad days," Blank said. "It's how you deal with adversity. I have tremendous confidence in this coaching staff and our players as well, that they will respond and that we will have a very successful team this year."