It was the fifth round of Sunday’s National Football League Draft and the phone began ringing in DeVonte Peterson’s dorm room.

It was an official from the Kansas City Chiefs.

“DeVonte,” the voice said, “I’m talking to the general manager right now. We’re trying to get you on the next pick. Be patient. Be by the phone.”

Peterson, a 6-foot-4, 288-pound defensive tackle who was a two-time All-American at Catawba College, felt his heart racing. This was it. He was going to be drafted by a professional football team.

Kansas City chose someone else.

“Aw!” Peterson yelped, throwing up his arms.

In the sixth round, the phone rang. It was the Miami Dolphins.

“We don’t have any more picks,” Peterson was told. “But we’re trying to get one to pick you up. Be patient. Be by the phone.”

It never happened.

In the seventh and final round, New England called. “We’ve got the next two picks,” the voice told Peterson. “We’re going to pick you. Be patient. Be by the phone.”

The Patriots called two other names.

“Aw!” wailed Peterson, throwing up his arms.

Buffalo called in the seventh round too. The Bills had no more picks but gave the same spiel —“we’re going to try and get you.”

Didn’t happen.

In a nearby dorm room, Peterson’s defensive line sidekick Radell Lockhart was on the phone, listening to officials from the Baltimore Ravens.

“We’re going to pick you with No. 231,” Lockhart was told.

No. 231 popped on the screen and ESPN announced the name, ”Dwayne Missouri, defensive end, Northwestern.”

Neither Lockhart nor Peterson would hear his name called. But this is professional sports. And both knew they were going to be NFL football players anyway.

And they were right. Peterson eventually signed with Buffalo, Lockhart with Jacksonville.

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Peterson and Lockhart, a 6-4, 280-pound defensive end, found out first-hand what the NFL Draft is all about. Actually, those phone calls were similar to the ones they received as seniors in high school. They were being recruited all over again.

But instead of Catawba and Fayetteville State, Peterson was being wooed by the Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills.

“At the end of the seventh round, I was bombarded with calls from Miami and Buffalo ... Buffalo and Miami,” Peterson whewed.

Miami head coach Dave Wannstedt talked personally with Peterson. Then, Tom Donohoe, the president of the Bills, spoke with him.

“I’m like, ‘Wow! The president of the Bills is calling me?’”

It appeared the Dolphins had the best schmoozers. Peterson was ready to hit the beach in South Florida.

“They told me, ‘You’ll make more money here. The taxes are lower,’” he said.

But there was a better talker in Connecticut — Joe Linta, Peterson’s agent.

It was Linta’s job to get Peterson to the best place. He suggested to his client that he take less money and go to Buffalo.

For obvious reasons. The Bills had only two defensive tackles. They drafted only one — Ron Edwards from Texas A&M. Miami already had five DT’s on its roster and was keeping just five.

So Peterson became a Buffalo Bill.

About 6 p.m., just 37 minutes after pick 246 ended the draft, Peterson bounded up the steps of Goodman Gym, cell phone in hand.

Ring!

“Hey man, I’m a Bill,” Peterson gushed. “Yeah, man! A Bill! I’m a Buffalo Bill!”

It was a bit overwhelming for a kid from Clinton, N.C. who didn’t even play his first season of football until his junior season in high school.

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Basketball was always DeVonte Peterson’s game. As a freshman and sophomore, he was one of the best in Clinton, a bonafide football town.

“It was my love,” Peterson said. “I had a crossover, a J, and I could dunk. And I also only weighed 205, 215 pounds.”

But football coach Bob Lewis intervened. “He told me, “You’re a little too big to be on the court. You need to be on the grass,’” Peterson recalls.

So Peterson played football, going both ways.

Lewis remembers telling Catawba assistant coach Jamie Snider, “I’ve got a sleeper down here.”

Catawba didn’t get him right away. After graduating in 1996, he went to Fayetteville State as a redshirt, but quickly transferred to Catawba.

And guess what? He didn’t play here until his junior year.

“No, I didn’t play!” said Peterson, who said he didn’t expect to. “I was behind the great ones — Maurice Miller, Michael Robinson, Ronnie Harrington — people who went crazy on the field. Those guys were so great, you never saw their backups. I had to wait my turn.”

While waiting, he worked. Defensive line coach Jim Tomsula would be driving home at midnight and see Peterson running around campus. He’d come to school early in the morning and see Peterson running around campus.

Suddenly, the junior year came and Peterson was the man. A 280-pound man.

Eighty-seven tackles and 18 sacks later, he was an All-American. And just like that, a pro prospect.

“I was just next in line,” he shrugs. “Anybody could’ve done what I did, it’s just whether they wanted to.”

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Unlike Peterson, Lockhart was no sleeper. Going into his senior season, his top two college choices were Tennessee and Arkansas. By the way, he too was a very good basketball player.

“I thought I was going pro in the NFL and the NBA,” he grins now.

But injuries do strange things to recruiters. Early in his senior year, he mangled an ankle. He became desperate.

“I wasn’t thinking about the pros,” Lockhart said. “I was worried about ever playing again.”

His coach at Charlotte Independence, Rusty Jester, had similar thoughts. The big schools backed off and it hurt Jester and his staff as much as it confused Lockhart.

“Tennessee wanted me to go to Coffeyville Junior College,” Lockhart remembers. “But I wanted to play.”

Catawba assistant Richard Kent wouldn’t let up. Lockhart was impressed. By his senior season, he had joined Peterson on the All-American list.

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And there he was Sunday, listening to the overtures of Green Bay, Chicago, Baltimore and Miami.

Then, Linta called. He had worked out a one-year contract with the Jaguars, who did not draft a defensive end.

“At the beginning of (Catawba’s) camp, Jacksonville was out there,” Lockhart said. “So they had seen me. I feel pretty good about it.”

Both will fly to their teams Thursday morning for physicals and practice. They will return to school because of the rule stating they have to finish school before becoming a pro. Both are scheduled to graduate May 12.

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But right now, you must excuse Peterson and Lockhart if they playfully strut around campus. Talk about being big fish in a small pond ...

Peterson has already heard from banks and financial advisors, wanting to represent him and his two-year contract. Suddenly, friends he never knew he had are coming out of the woodwork.

And he is loving it.

“I’m going to be his wife!” chirped one young lady as Peterson floated toward a computer lab Tuesday, all the while enlisting students to attend his personal auction in an attempt to clean out his room.

“Hello, my name’s Radell Lockhart,” Peterson joked to his fellow students probably 30 times.

Lockhart, the quiet one, simply walked beside his buddy, smiling.

How did Peterson celebrate his new-found celebrity status?

In typical DeVonte Peterson fashion.

“I’m going to run real hard and maybe this will sink in,” he said. “Running is the time you can be by yourself and think of everything.”

We know exactly what Peterson is thinking, now don’t we?

“I’m a Bill, man! A Buffalo Bill!”

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Contact sports editor Ronnie Gallagher at 797-4256 or rgallagher@salisbury post.com .