Shortly before he turned 16, Thomas Perry surprised his parents with a very unusual request for a birthday present. At the same age that many kids beg for a trendy car or truck to drive, Perry asked for a single oversized tractor tire.
Amused but curious, Perry’s dad asked his son why exactly he wanted the tire.
“So I can flip it up and down the road,” the young offensive lineman responded matter-of-factly.
The monstrous tire that the family acquired weighed several hundred pounds and came up to Perry’s chest. Flipping it end-over-end became a staple of Perry’s workouts, first around his cul de sac, then to the main road and back and eventually a mile and a half to and from the center of his small, rural Connecticut hometown.