Falcons name Apalachee High School football players honorary captains
ATLANTA - Less than four weeks after the deadly shooting that shocked Apalachee High School, the Atlanta Falcons honored the school's football team with a special invitation to Sunday night's game against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Members of the Apalachee Wildcats got to hang out on the sideline ahead of kickoff at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Two members of the team, Favian Williford and Jason White, also took part in the coin flip as honorary captains.
This is not the first time the Falcons have paid tribute to the team's resilience and the victims of the Sept. 4th shooting in Barrow County.
In their home opener against the Steelers, the Falcons wore Apalachee Wildcats T-shirts on the field during pregame warm-ups and held a moment of silence for everyone affected.
"It definitely meant a lot," said Falcons defensive end Grady Jarrett, who grew up in suburban Atlanta. "I played Apalachee when I was in high school."
On Sept. 14, the team hosted the football team at their training complex in Flowery Branch. The team got to watch practice from the sidelines and received words of encouragement from players.
"I think it’s incredible that you get a chance to see some young kids going through some tough stuff," said Jerry Gray, the Falcons’ assistant head coach for defense. "I always look and say, ‘Man, what are they going through?’ They’ve got to go back to the school where it happened."
Falcons, NFL honor Apalachee High School
The Atlanta Falcons wore t-shirts representing Apalachee High School during warm-ups at their home opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and his wife have also stepped in to help the family of the football coach who doubled as a math teacher and was killed during the deadly shooting. The fundraiser for Ricky Aspinwall has reached nearly $400K.
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- Apalachee High's Coach Hancock: ‘We are one Apalachee’
- Walton High School bomb threat just among hundreds since Apalachee shooting
- Mother of Apalachee HS shooting suspect charged with taping her mom to chair, leaving her
Among the victims of the shooting rampage was Richard Aspinwall, a math teacher and assistant coach for the Wildcats.
"There’s not a whole bunch of football coaches that teach high-level math, but he was one of those," Apalachee High School’s head football coach Mike Hancock told FOX 5 earlier this month. "He had a great smile, and you knew that when a kid messed up a play, they knew... but at the end of practice, he would put his arm around them or make notes of practice."
Apalachee High School is set to partially reopen on Tuesday, with half-day classes until fall break ends in mid-October. The hall where the shooting took place will remain closed. Therapy dogs, counselors, and additional law enforcement officers will be present when students return.
The suspected shooter, Colt Gray, faces four felony murder charges and is expected to face additional charges. His father, Colin Gray, has also been arrested and charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder, and eight counts of cruelty to children. He allegedly purchased the AR-style gun used in the mass shooting for his son.