JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — On the underside of Bruce Perry’s forearm is a large tattoo, the ink portraying a male figure whose head and limbs emerge from underneath debris: metaphorical obstacles. The tattoo isn’t pretty, which is the way Perry, a former star Terrapin running back, wanted it.
“It’s a warrior, a guy who has been through everything, been through hell,” Perry said. “He probably didn’t start looking like this, he probably was a pretty boy, but, you know, he did it all, he conquered everybody, he conquered everyone.”
After playing football at the university from 1999-2003, Perry is in his first season with the Philadelphia Eagles and somewhere between the pretty boy and the warrior. Though he has found much success in his life — Perry remains the only sophomore to win the ACC Offensive Player of the Year award — the 23-year-old has had his idealism sprained, torn and separated as he has endured injury after injury. Just when all the ingredients are in the blender, he presses start and the top flies off.
After seeing minimal action in his freshman year at Maryland, Perry red-shirted his second season. He returned with a breakout year — 1,294 yards rushing and 10 touchdowns.
And then came injury, after injury — strained stomach, torn groin, hurt shoulder — in a junior season that never truly came to fruition. Even though he had 237 yards and three touchdowns in the last regular game of his senior season, it too was scarred by an ankle injury.
Nonetheless, the Eagles chose Perry in the last round of the 2004 draft as the 242nd pick, undoubtedly dozens of spots below where he would have been nabbed had he been healthy.
If Perry had avoided injury this season and been set to play in Sunday’s Super Bowl against the New England Patriots, this story, his life and his forearm would be very different.
But back in August, in the 3rd quarter in the Eagle’s first preseason game, Perry took a handoff and was tackled by his past.
“We were running a play called 95, an outside zone play, and a couple of guys got a hold of my arm and just yanked it out,” Perry said.
His shoulder was separated, and his season was over. Two weeks later, the warrior appeared on Perry’s forearm.
`But he doesn’t think this latest injury will affect his future.
“Bottom line is, I’m on IR,” Perry said. “I’m still on the team for a reason. They thought that obviously I had enough talent to play at this level. It doesn’t matter where I start, it doesn’t matter where I got drafted, whether I was a first round pick or a free agent, it doesn’t matter. I’m here — that means I can play ball.”
As Perry says this, he focuses intensely. He’s declaring his resolve more than stating it, as if he’s convinced himself as much as he’s trying to convince others.
“Just because you have a couple of setbacks, you know, a couple of bumps in the road, doesn’t mean you can’t get to the top,” he said.
Terp coach Ralph Friedgen hasn’t spoken with Perry since he graduated. The coach was curt when talking about his former running back, though he did say he has hope for Perry.
“He’s had a lot of bad luck; he’s always hurt,” Friedgen said. “He has to hang in there and keep working.” As to whether Perry can make it back as a talented runner, the coach added with a chuckle, “Yeah, he’s been doing it for a long time now.”
Perry knows that he has his work cut out for him.
Few know that he is even on the Eagle’s roster. Even among Philadelphia Inquirer sports writers, only one of three contacted correctly identified him.
On Media Day Tuesday, Perry spoke to a German TV station.
But the halfback, whose listed height ranges from 5 feet 7 inches to the 5 feet 9 inches he claims, has more to do than solve an identity crisis.
Without a chance to prove himself this season, Perry will start the 2005 season miles behind Eagle’s pro-bowl running back Brian Westbrook on the depth chart. Even so, Perry is optimistic, noting that he hopes to use this lost season as a springboard just as he used his red-shirt season at Maryland.
For the 2001 Terrapin’s media guide, Perry was asked to pick one word to describe himself. He chose ambitious. The answer hasn’t changed several years later.
“You’ve got to be hungry in this game,” he said. “Just because something happened to you doesn’t mean you can lose your drive.”
“Right now, I just have to wait till next year. That’s what you have to do when you’re on the IR; you have to do what you can do to get ready for next year. But I’m on the team, and I’m enjoying the ride. Some people never make it this far, you know, a lot of the greats never made it this far. So I’m just enjoying myself.”
