Matt Birk

Matt Birk

Birk during the Ravens' training camp in August 2009
No. 77     Baltimore Ravens
Center
Personal information
Date of birth: July 23, 1976 (1976-07-23) (age 35)
Place of birth: St. Paul, Minnesota
Height: 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)	Weight: 309 lb (140 kg)
Career information
College: Harvard
NFL Draft: 1998 / Round: 6 / Pick: 173
Debuted in 1998 for the Minnesota Vikings
Career history
Minnesota Vikings (1998–2008) Baltimore Ravens (2009–present)
Roster status: Active
Career highlights and awards
6× Pro Bowl selection (2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007) 2× All-Pro selection (2000, 2003) 6× Minnesota Vikings Man of the Year Award (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007) Ed Block Courage Award (2006)
Career NFL statistics as of Week 16, 2009
Games played	161
Games started	138
Stats at NFL.com

Matthew Robert Birk (born July 23, 1976) is an American football center for the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League. He was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in the sixth round of the 1998 NFL Draft. He played college football at Harvard.^[1]

Birk is a two-time All-Pro and six-time Pro Bowl selection.

Early years

Birk attended Cretin-Derham Hall High School in St. Paul, Minnesota, and was an excellent student-athlete, letterman and a standout in football, basketball, and track & field. He was an All-St. Paul Conference honoree, an Academic All-State honoree, and an All-State honoree in both football and basketball. Matt Birk graduated from Cretin-Derham High School in 1994. He recorded a 3.8 GPA and scored a 34 on his ACT, enabling him to attend Harvard.

College career

Birk graduated from Harvard University in 1998 with a degree in Economics.^[1] While playing for the Harvard Crimson, he attained All-Ivy League, All-New England and Division I-AA All-ECAC first team football honors.

Professional career

Minnesota Vikings

Birk as a Viking in 2008

Birk was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in the 6th round (173rd overall) of the 1998 NFL Draft. During his first two seasons with the Vikings, he appeared in 22 games as a back-up offensive lineman. In 2000, he took over the starting center position for the Vikings, starting all 16 games and was named to his first Pro Bowl team. Birk started every game for the Vikings at center from 2000-2003.

In 2004, Birk missed the last 4 games of the season due to surgery to treat a sports hernia. He missed the entire 2005 season with a hip injury that required surgery.

Birk returned to form in 2006, again anchoring the Vikings offensive line from the center spot, and earning his fifth career Pro Bowl selection. In 2007, Birk was named Minnesota Vikings Man of the Year for the sixth year in a row. He also earned his sixth Pro Bowl selection, tying Mick Tinglehoff for most Pro Bowl appearances by a Vikings center.

Baltimore Ravens

An unrestricted free agent in the 2009 offseason, Birk signed a three-year, $12 million contract with the Baltimore Ravens on March 4. The deal included $6 million guaranteed.^[2]

Personal

He was recently named the 6th smartest athlete by the Sporting News.^[3]

Birk is a pro-life activist. His wife volunteers at a crisis pregnancy center and he participated in the Maryland March for Life in 2011.^[4]

Birk is a Roman Catholic and is currently expecting the arrival of his sixth child.^[4]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Van Valkenburg, Kevin (August 27, 2009), "Veteran Birk leads Ravens' young O-line", The Baltimore Sun, http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/ravens/bal-sp.ravens27aug27,0,4345116.story .
2. ^ Duffy, Mike (March 4, 2009), "Birk Shores Up Ravens at Center", BaltimoreRavens.com, http://www.baltimoreravens.com/News/Articles/2009/03/Birk_Shores_Up_Ravens_at_Center.aspx .
3. ^ http://www.sportingnews.com/mlb/feed/2010-09/smart-athletes/story/sporting-news-names-the-20-smartest-athletes-in-sports
4. ^ ^{a b} Ravens’ Matt Birk speaks up for life

Further reading

• Merrill, Elizabeth (December 31, 2009), "Pain the price willingly paid in NFL", ESPN, http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?page=hotread16/Birk 

External links

• Matt Birk’s HIKE Foundation
• Access Athletes Athlete Chat: Matt Birk