Matt Birk’s 36th birthday is today but there won’t be any family party. The St. Paul native will be at the Ravens training camp in Maryland, a work assignment that started this morning and will extend into the evening.
The former Vikings center has reached an age where a next season is not a given. He took some time after the 2011 season to evaluate his future and then decided to play a 15th NFL year. It’s a process that likely will be repeated again after this season.
“Give myself a chance to heal up physically and emotionally. Then talk it over with my wife and see what’s best for our family,” Birk said.
Birk told Sports Headliners he has no major physical concerns heading into training camp. If he did, he wouldn’t be in Owings Mills, Maryland where the Ravens train.
“I feel like I am playing good, playing well,” he said. “Physically can I do the same things I did 10 years ago? No, but I like to think I am a little bit smarter.
“But one thing that remains a constant: it’s never easy, it’s always a challenge. Not every single week, every single day. You’re going against the best players in the world. There’s never a day when you can just kind of take a day off or just kind of coast through. That’s what makes it great. The challenge is immense.”
Birk, who was a sixth round draft choice from Harvard, played 11 seasons for the Vikings but never on a Super Bowl team. The Ravens were 12-4 last season. Birk, who expects to be the team’s starting center, believes the Ravens will again be a good football team and obviously he would welcome a Super Bowl experience.
“That’s the ultimate goal but nobody is owed anything,” he said. “It’s a great thing because all 32 teams are working towards that. Just to have the opportunity to be able to still play and also to be on a team with an organization like the Ravens, that’s all I could ask for.”
Birk used free agency to leave the Vikings. He said there were various reasons for his decision, although he said the money offered by the two clubs was similar. “In some ways I was just kind of itching for a change for something different. Baltimore was just a great situation. They had a great team, a great group. They were competitive. Great owner. I mean all those things were in order. I wasn’t going to leave for just anywhere but I felt the situation in Baltimore was too good to pass up.”
It’s been speculated that Birk and Vikings coach Brad Childress didn’t get along. Did his relationship with Childress impact his decision to leave the Vikings? “Maybe a little bit,” Birk said. “We had our ups and downs but at the end of the day I think we both respected each other. I played for him for three years and I learned a lot.”
Leaving the Vikings wasn’t something that Birk had long planned. “I would never have guessed that I wouldn’t have finished (with the Vikings) but things happen. To have played 11 years with the Vikings was unbelievable. I mean just unbelievable. A dream that I didn’t even know that I had that came true.”
Birk comes back to the Twin Cities in the offseason. This is home for his wife Adrianna and their children. The kids range in age from six months to 10 years.
Did the family do anything interesting in the offseason?
“I have six kids. Every day is interesting,” Birk answered.
He won’t see the kids today on his birthday but that’s okay. He’s been anticipating the start of another season for awhile now and knows July 23 won’t always be spent at training camp.