Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | D | Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL)

There are stories behind the headlines as football playoff fever builds.

Article Excerpt
Byline: Patricia Babcock McGraw

So many good stories, so little time.

Here's one from each of the four remaining playoff football teams in our Lake County coverage area:

Long road back

It's almost hard for Jeremy Sheldon to believe that it hasn't even been a year yet since his world - let alone his back, hip, knee and ankle - were shattered.

It was mid-February and the Libertyville offensive lineman, who will start at guard when the Wildcats host Lake Zurich in the state quarterfinals tonight, was working as a porter at Liberty Auto City - an auto dealership in Libertyville. His primary job there was to wash and clean out cars before they were delivered to customers.

He had just sat down to eat his breakfast one morning when one of his co-workers - and closest friends - pulled a Jeep toward him. As Sheldon's friend went to stop the vehicle, his foot slipped off the clutch. The Jeep jumped forward, smacked into the right side of Sheldon's lower body and pinned him up against the wall. He was pressed there for what seemed a lifetime.

"It took them a few seconds to get the car off me," Sheldon said. "At first, I was kind of in shock and I didn't feel anything. Then, the pain just hit me and I was on the floor screaming and yelling. I'm surprised I didn't pass out because of all the pain."

Sheldon may be a rugged, burly, 6-foot-5, 326-pound football tough guy, but this was too much for even him to withstand.

The impact from the Jeep - even though it was moving slowly - combined with force with which he was pinned against the wall left Sheldon with torn ligaments in his ankle and knee, a dislocated hip and a cracked vertebrae in his back. He was in bad shape - so bad, in fact, that doctors had to rush to perform surgery on his hip for fear that he could lose his leg.

"(The doctors) were telling me afterward that once your hip bone is dislocated, the blood supply to your leg starts cutting off and they basically have a four-hour window...