Admit it, you were furious.

As former longtime Souhegan High School football coach Mike Beliveau said, “Buzz kill.”

As you sat in the glory of having a live sporting event as popular as the first night of the National Football League Draft take place, you were watching every move on Thursday night.

That’s because you were intently waiting for the New England Patriots to make their move. And then Bill Belichick let the air out of yours and Beliveau’s baloon when he dealt the Patriots first round pick at No. 23 away to the Los Angeles Chargers for that oh so coveted second rounder and what was going into Friday night a third round pick, giving NE four.

“It was pretty disappointing,” Beliveau, who lives and breathes Patriots football, said. “I guess a first round choice didn’t work for Bill (Patriots coach Belichick). Other teams are taking a shot at the first round. You roll the dice. They say you can get the same guy at No. 37 that you can get at 23? How can you say that?”

Of course, this was predicted by a couple of local coaches, including Beliveau’s protege, current Sabers head coach Robin Bowkett, and Campbell coach Glen Costello in our earlier poll this week. “Just too much talent in the second and third round to pass up,” Bowkett said.

Don’t tell that to Beliveau, who woke up Friday morning a little less peeved than he maybe he was late Thursday night but still peeved nonetheless. He’s tried to make sense of it in his mind, thinking maybe the cap-strapped Patriots want to load up for next year when they’ll have more room.

No matter who they grabbed Friday night with those second and third rounders, Beliveau admitted he wanted a certain first round player – Oklahoma linebacker Kenneth Murray, whom the Chargers took with their gift from the Patriots. “Not only from what I’ve read about him and seen as a player, but he seems like the real thing as a person, too,” he said. “You figure they lost (Kyle) Van Noy, (Jamie) Collins (both linebackers). …”

That’s the fun of the draft, everybody has an opinion, right? But for a passionate superfan like Beliveau, trying to figure out the thinking of Belichick is just too strenuous.

“Waiting and waiting and having them do that, it was kind of like a mule kick in the stomach,” Beliveau said.

Ouch. Many in the area – heck, the region – on Friday night felt Mike Beliveau’s pain.

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We may end up calling it Super Saturday. If it takes place.

That would be the first day of August, when, for the first time ever, both the annual CHaD East-West All-Star and the Shrine New Hampshire-Vermont Maple Sugar Bowl Games are played on the same late afternoon. CHaD will be 4 p.m. at Saint Anselm College, and the Shrine Game will be at 5:30 p.m. at Castleton (Vt.) University.

There’s a good and bad to this whole thing. The good: Some 33 local high school football players from the graduated Class of 2020 will be taking the field, all on the same day.

The bad: 33 graduated seniors will be taking the field, all on the same day.

Now, of course, it may never happen thanks to the pandemic, but it just is more of a sign how the CHaD has basically pushed the Shrine Game aside as the premier All-Star summer football game.

Remember the days when the Shrine Game was the premiere event of the summer, held at Dartmouth College, and usually served as the kickoff for the season as high school practices would start a few days later? Now it’s become primarily an afterthought because it’s played further away and hasn’t gotten much Division I participation over the years. And that’s a shame, but there has been a lot of talk over the years that the game should be phased out, much to the chagrin of Shrine officials as the game raises money for a great cause.

“We had only nine of 20 Division I schools nominate players,” Alvirne and New Hampshire Shrine head coach Tarek Rothe said, none too happy about the CHaD Game moving to the same day. “I feel bad, there just hasn’t been a lot of connection with Division I. We had schools that have over 100 players in their programs not nominate any of their kids.”

And that’s a shame. But, right now, the main thing is to hope both games get played, certainly a huge question mark.

“I like coaching the Shrine Team a lot,” he said. “I just hope we get a chance to compete.”

That’s a common theme heard everywhere, isn’t it.

Tom King may be reached at 594-1251, or@Telegraph_TomK, or tking@nashuatelegraph.com

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