It's been the same all season. The Falcons have played every game with a giant elephant in the room. It just gets a little bigger when Monday Night Football is in town.

By either coincidence or sick twist of fate, ESPN brought the national spotlight to Atlanta the day Michael Vick entered a guilty plea to dogfighting charges on Aug. 27 and again on Monday against New Orleans, the day he was sentenced to 23 months in prison.

CURTIS COMPTON/Staff (ENLARGE)

T.J. Jordan of Atlanta proudly displays his Michael Vick doll in the first quarter of the Falcons home game against the New Orleans Saints.

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In between, there was also a visit on Oct. 15 for a Monday night loss to the New York Giants.

This is apparently another way the mighty can fall. Another Vick-less game brought a mix of emotions. And a lot of Saints fans.

At a time Falcons fans might want to bury their heads over the 3-9 record entering the game, many proudly wore Vick jerseys.

Wendall and Shawn King of Douglasville both wore shiny white Vick road jerseys, standing on the first row before the game. They were trying to catch a glimpse of owner Arthur Blank addressing assembled reporters, reacting to Monday's sentencing.

It was the first time Shawn King had worn her Vick jersey.

"If they brought him back today, I would be right there cheering him on," she said. "As a player, he's great."

That's where the Kings draw the line.

"We support Michael Vick the football player, not Michael Vick the person outside of football," Wendall King said.

They took some kidding coming in, that their jerseys were worth the price of a beer.

"Yeah, I think we paid too much," Shawn said laughing. They paid $160 for the pair from a street vendor two months ago.

For others in Vick jerseys, their take was a bit more political.

Brandon Lynum, a Falcons season ticket holder, flashed a sign made of two pieces of poster-board near the sideline set for ESPN analysts. On one side, it said, "SportsCenter is next." And on the other? "100 Abortions = kill 8 dogs = 23 months in jail. Where is the justice?"

"You can have an abortion 100 times over, and nobody says a thing about it," Lynum explained. "But you kill eight dogs and you're facing fed time? I understand people say, 'Well abortions are legal.' Maybe we need to figure out what's legal and what's not. If you're going to make one wrong, make them all wrong. It doesn't make any sense."

Lynum was escorted to the concourse by Falcons security and told he had to get rid of the sign or leave the game. Posters had to pertain to the event. He convinced them the "SportsCenter is next" sign was fair game, and he ripped up the other one in their presence.

He walked off, but he was not through. He went back in search of some TV cameras.

"I've still got it on the other side," he said, flashing the political message on the back side of the SportsCenter poster.

The kind of sign Jim Seagraves was bearing Monday could not be thrown away. He has a tattoo of the Falcons emblem on his left biceps. Monday, he wore a T-shirt with the sleeves cut off, bearing the tattoo proudly, he said, as he always does.

"A lot of people ask me what I think of Michael Vick," Seagraves said. "I'm a Falcon fan. I'm not a one-person fan. It wouldn't matter who's quarterbacking the team."

For fans like Seagraves, the sentencing spelled at least a reason the team can move forward.

"There's not this he said/she said thing anymore," he said. "It's done. He's serving his time. ... There's no more hanging over our heads. It's a relief that's over with, and the questions have stopped."