For Richards to keep streaking, Bulldogs have to be beasts of burden

Sometimes weight just can't be measured in pounds. Sometimes you can't just put your hands around it and simply push it off.

For Richards football coach Tony Sheehan, his staff and the young men who wear the Bulldogs jersey, the heavy feeling on their shoulders today is nothing that can be rolled off.

He is trying to live up to a legend. The kids are trying to live up to a tradition.

It's a weight that can only be measured in years - 23 of them, to be exact.

That's the number of consecutive appearances in the state playoffs Richards has made since 1985.

It's a weight that wouldn't be there if, just once, the Bulldogs had slipped up. If the legend that Korhonen built at the Oak Lawn school hadn't grown and grown and grown to the point where they named the doggone field after him. If the Richards community hadn't gotten so used to having a Week 10 to look forward to that it'll feel like Halloween without candy if they don't.

Sixteen tons may have made Tennessee Ernie Ford feel older. But 23 years probably isn't doing too much for Sheehan's hair color, either.

"It's pretty heavy, there's no doubt about it," he said before Thursday's practice for tonight's all-or-nothing battle in Summit against Argo.

"Having played here (in the mid-1990s), being a part of it for so long, I definitely don't want to be the guy who lets it slip away," Sheehan said.

Argo running back Bobby Pettis, considered one of the best in the area, will do his darndest tonight to make him that guy.

All of the Argonauts have this to play for: Argo has never beaten Richards in - numerologists take note - 23 tries. And speaking of 23 tries, none of Richards' consecutive playoff berths has required a Week 9 win.

"It's definitely not an automatic," Sheehan said. "The attitude we have is that this isn't our God-given right to get in, but we should be in.

"If we do happen to win we're going to take it as, 'This is what we were supposed to do, and let's move on to Round 1.' "

If they don't, the werewolves of London will be a barbershop quartet compared to the critics howling around his kitchen door.

"I'm sure everyone has their opinion, and I'm sure people would be saying, 'With Korhonen, they wouldn't be in this position. He would have done it that way,' " Sheehan said. "But that's not the pressure I feel.

"I just feel the pressure that ... I was part of this. I played here, I coached here, I want to keep it going. It's really, to me, more that than what coach did."

So what in the wide, wide world of sports got the Bulldogs in this position?

Two of the losses, Sheehan can live with. Richards played a decent game against powerful Morgan Park (a 41-28 loss), and heck, Lemont has been beating the tar out of everybody this season.

I'll even buy the 26-14 loss to Oak Forest in Week 3, although Sheehan has regrets.

"We shot ourselves in the foot against Oak Forest," he said. "We were up 14-7 in the third quarter and had a couple of turnovers that they capitalized on."

Then there was Oak Lawn in Week 8. Richards just doesn't lose to Oak Lawn. But for the first time since 1974 ...

"Heh, I'm still having nightmares about it," he said of the 20-12 loss. "We had five turnovers against Oak Lawn and pretty much shot ourselves in the foot again.

"You know, (Oak Lawn) played real well. I've got to give it to them. But at the same time, with five turnovers, especially with three interceptions in the second half, we kind of killed ourselves there."

Whether they killed themselves dead is something we'll find out tonight.

Tony Baranek can be reached at tbaranek@southtownstar.com or (708) 633-5947.