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Best of luck, Matt. Great guy (political views notwithstanding). Community leader. Heck of a center. Too bad you couldn't get your ring in Purple.

Matt Birk - C - Ravens

Ravens C Matt Birk is retiring from football.

He'll make the announcement on Friday. Birk, 36, will go out on top as a Super Bowl-winning center and 16-game starter for the Ravens. A Harvard alum and the 2011 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year, Birk earned six Pro Bowl trips -- all with Minnesota in the 2000s. He continued to play at a very high level into his mid-30s and had gas left in the tank even as he retired.
Source: Baltimore Sun

I'll always remember that Matt Birk went to Harvard.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naBSb5RStw8

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap100000 ... ravens-nfl

hes a great player and a great human, glad to see him go out in style.

hehe beat me to it, i just posted this over in NFL talk

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=25578

Mods feel free to delete my thread.

Good for him. He was an excellent player for many years.

Do you guys think he will make HOF?

dead_poet wrote:Too bad you couldn't get your ring in Purple.

Technically, he did...

PurpleMustReign wrote: Technically, he did...

LOL! I was going to say the same thing.

I'm glad Birk gets to go out on top. He's one of my my favorite Vikings players of the last 20 years. I'm just sorry he couldn't go out on top as a Viking...

PurpleMustReign wrote:
Technically, he did...

REAL Purple. Not that imitation junk.

I wish the best of luck to him. He was a great football player. To bad he couldn't retire as a viking.

Birk was definitely a talented center. It's good to see a player retire at the right time, as opposed to being forced into retirement because no one wants him.

dead_poet wrote: REAL Purple. Not that imitation junk.

Could have probably had a super bowl ring here if he stayed. The only good thing that came out of him leaving was the fact that John Sullivan grew tremendously as a player even though it was rough at first (and it didn't make things better with me ragging on him a lot in 2009/10).

HardcoreVikesFan wrote:Could have probably had a super bowl ring here if he stayed. The only good thing that came out of him leaving was the fact that John Sullivan grew tremendously as a player even though it was rough at first (and it didn't make things better with me ragging on him a lot in 2009/10).

Why? Not like Birk would have told Favre "Don't throw on 3rd and 15".

NextQuestion wrote: Why? Not like Birk would have told Favre "Don't throw on 3rd and 15".

Our offensive line was sorely lacking leadership from the center position during the 2009 season. The line calls were often wrong due to Sullivan's inexperience. With Birk here, we would have seen consistent line calls which would have lead to much better protection for Favre. Not to mention, Birk was still a very effective blocker when he left Minnesota.

Boy, I don't know about that. Sullivan and our line got us that far...not sure if Birk was the missing puzzling piece. Seems a bit preposterous to me.

My first thought when I heard that he made the Pro Bowl six times -- in addition to anchoring the offensive line of a Super Bowl champion -- was that he will get consideration for Canton. I don't think it's likely he gets inducted. But I think there is a real chance. He's a very good guy and a very good player ... and sometimes, guys like that get in, even if he wasn't at the very top of the top. Not everyone in Canton was of the caliber of a Jim Brown or Jerry Rice (or an Adrian Peterson).

Congrats on a great career. As a Viking lover, a resident of the state of Maryland, and a grad of Harvard (albeit not the undergraduate school), he makes me proud.