Newport News, Va. — The temperature in Michael Vick's hometown rose past comfortable Wednesday, and the humidity near where he grew up at the confluence of the Chesapeake Bay and the James River hung heavy.

One of their local heroes is in hot water. The Atlanta Falcons quarterback has been indicted on federal charges related to dogfighting.

Jason Getz / AJC (ENLARGE)

Recent Warwick High School graduate Maal Clayton, 19, of Newport News (left), waits with friend and Warwick senior at Warwick Tiara Brown, 17, at the bus stop in front of the school Wednesday. Clayton sympathizes with Vick, who also went to Warwick: 'I don't think that stuff's going to stick.'

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"If it was me fighting dogs, it would have been over and done with," said Mike Smith, 29, a Newport News sales representative. "I think they're making an extra effort to make sure he's going to be penalized in the worst way just because of what his name is. If it was just a John Doe, it would not be that big a deal."

If Vick and three others named in the 18-page indictment are guilty of all charges, it would be a big deal: They would face up to six years in prison.

That possibility is not popular even as headlines in all local morning papers were dominated by Vick, who learned Wednesday that he must appear in a Virginia court next Thursday, the same day the Falcons open training camp.

Most locals stand by their man.

Outside Warwick High, where Vick graduated, a young man who identified himself as Warwick graduate Maal Clayton, 19, said he was not surprised by the charges because "Michael Vick's from the 'hood. But he's going to be playing for the Falcons; I don't think that stuff's going to stick.

"He's Michael Vick, one of the highest-paid athletes in the NFL. If O.J. [Simpson] can get away with murder, Michael Vick can get away with a few hurt dogs. I've been to 'em [dogfights]. They're around here. I never saw Vick."

Casey Jones, 16, a junior at Warwick, has a different opinion. "I don't think he's being unfairly persecuted," Jones said. "And I don't think he's going to play this year."

The building of a legend

Vick was a running back first.

"I might not even be here in the position I'm in if it weren't for one of my homeboys named Abdullah," Vick said in a 2005 interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "When he got killed, I had to go play quarterback. Abdullah McClain was his name. He got shot. That's all I know. I was like 11 or 12."

Vick's childhood nickname "Ookie" is in the indictment. That moniker — given to him by an aunt — is still used.

Renardo "Stinky" Lassiter scored a lot of touchdowns as a 13-year-old on the corner-slant route with Vick throwing the passes. "It was like a guaranteed route," Lassiter said in a 2005 interview with the AJC. "It worked 98 percent of the time. ... Coach'd send in the play, kind of say, 'Ookie, hit 'em on the corner route.'"

Abundantly skilled as a youngster, there were other signs Vick was unique.

"I saw a competitive spirit, and even at an early age a work ethic that was going to be to his benefit," said James "Poo" Johnson, the long-time executive director at the Greater Hampton Roads Boys & Girls Club where Vick spent so much time as a child.

"But I also saw innocence, that his level of trust with people ... sometimes looking back over the past four or five years I think that he has trusted people sometimes to a fault. He is paying the price for that now."

By many accounts, many of Vick's best friendships were formed on the hardscrabble streets of southern Newport News, where the two southernmost ZIP codes form an area known as "the Bottom," across the Chesapeake from the Norfolk Naval Station.

Other than shipyards, there is not a robust economy here.

According to the 2000 U.S. Census, 46.3 percent of the 19,904 residents age 16 or older in those two ZIP codes were out of work in 1999. Also, 4,237 of 10,110 households (41.9 percent) had a combined annual income below $15,000.

In comments about recent troubles, Vick said before the NFL draft in April that he needed to change relationships with some friends and family.

Crystal Miles, 22, lives in the same Ridley Circle housing project where Vick grew up. She agrees.

"I just think when you get in a different spotlight and make it big you don't have to, you know, 'keep it real.' You have to get different friends," Miles said. "You can't keep the same kind of friends; you have to change the scenery. People might think that's being fake, but that's not being fake. It's doing what you have to do. You get out [of the projects], you want to stay out."

Hurting with Vick

Some locals view recent developments with indifference.

Shenelle Harris, 19, graduated from Warwick and is now a student at nearby Thomas Nelson Community College. Not much of a sports fan, she said, "I just saw it in the paper today. If he had it in his house, and all the dogs and all the elements ... if he did it, he did it.

"Even if he didn't do it, if it's at his house, he could have known about it. I think more people are worried around here now about flood insurance because we have a lot of floods around here and it's expensive."

For most, though, this is a very big deal.

Greater Hampton Roads Boys & Girls Club physical director Kenneth Hundley has taken 600 pairs of Nike football shoes that Vick has paid for over the years, and with stacks of Vick-donated Nike baseball shoes behind him Wednesday, he rues the notion that few outsiders know the whole Vick.

"Our football program would not survive without Michael Vick and the donations he makes," Hundley said. "If we need chin straps, ear pads, screws, pants, anything we call Mike and ask for we don't have any problem getting. We all make mistakes. I do, I have, and I feel like this is just one of those things where we have to wait for it all to blow over."

"The unfortunate thing is that people outside this area have already formed a negative opinion," Johnson said. "The community is feeling every pain that Mike's feeling now. I can personally say that.

"I wish it would go away. I wish it had never happened, but I also believe in the Constitution of the United States. I believe that a man is innocent until he's proven guilty."