Matt Birk ’98 Goes Out On Top

Matt Birk ’98 faced long odds to achieve NFL stardom and reach the top of the football world. Harvard had produced just 15 NFL players since 1935, and even after the Minnesota Vikings selected him with the 173rd pick of the 1998 NFL Draft, he faced an uphill road to success in a league nicknamed “Not For Long.”

Fifteen years later, Birk beat the odds and went out on top, announcing his retirement on Feb. 22 after making more Pro Bowls—six—than all but four players drafted in 1998 and winning Super Bowl XLVII on Feb. 3 as the starting center for the Baltimore Ravens.

The two-time All-Pro is arguably the most successful NFL player to play for the Crimson and is just the second Harvard player to win a Super Bowl.

Crimson coach Tim Murphy, who coached Birk during his time at Harvard, saw his success coming.

“I’m not surprised at all that Matt made it in the NFL,” Murphy remarked. “What is truly amazing, though, is that he has become one of the best players at his position on the planet.”

JOE MAKES HIM PRO

Hailing from St. Paul, Minn., Birk arrived in Cambridge to a team that had gone 3-7 the previous season. Murphy came to campus the same fall and the pair helped engineer a turnaround that culminated in a 9-1 record and Ivy League title in Birk’s senior season in 1997.

“Matt probably improved more as a player and an athlete in his four years than any other kid I’ve ever been around,” Murphy said. “He basically willed himself to become an NFL-caliber player.”

The center took his game to the next level entering his senior year, and he credits much of his improvement to a new offensive line coach, Joe Philbin, who is now coach of the Miami Dolphins.

“Going into my senior season, I thought it would be the last time I’d ever play football,” Birk said. “So I really rededicated myself that off-season, but the biggest key was that they hired Joe Philbin as the offensive line coach. I learned so much from him.”

Birk progressed so far that he began to catch scouts’ eyes.

“One day, I asked a scout, ‘Do you really think I have a shot at this?’” Birk recounted. “He said, ‘Yes, you do.’ So that’s when I really decided to go for it and went full speed ahead.”

At the season’s end, Birk earned All-Ivy League and All-ECAC first team honors and became the first Crimson offensive lineman to be drafted since Roger Caron ’85 in 1985.

HOMETOWN HERO

After his hometown Vikings selected him, the sixth-round draft pick spent his first two seasons as a backup on the squad’s offensive line, where he learned from the team’s stars.

“The Vikings didn’t need me to play right away as they had a great offensive line with multiple Pro Bowlers,” Birk said. “I got to develop and learn, and then [before the 2000 season,] All-Pro center Jeff Christy went to Tampa Bay, and it was an open competition for the starting center position. And I won it.”

Once Birk broke into the lineup, he never looked back. He was selected to the Pro Bowl and the All-Pro team in his first season as a starter.

His success was especially sweet because he made his mark as a member of his childhood-favorite team.

“It was a dream come true to get my shot with the Vikings,” Birk said. “It [was] already a dream to play in the NFL, but when you’re playing in front of your hometown and your family and friends, it makes it that much better.”

The Harvard alum made six Pro Bowls, tying Mick Tinglehoff’s franchise record for a Minnesota center, in seven seasons spanning from 2000 to 2007—he missed all of 2005 with an injury.

In 2009, it was time to move on, and the veteran signed with Baltimore. He made 112 consecutive starts with the Ravens to end his career—the last of which came in Super Bowl XLVII.

MAN OF THE YEAR

Birk has also made a large splash off the field through his community work.

“To me, the thing about Matt is not the football accolades,” Murphy remarked. “It’s what everybody thinks about him as a person. To be named NFL Man of the Year among all of his peers tells you that what he does outside of football has had even more impact than what he’s done on the field.”

Birk is highly respected by his former teammates—he was named Minnesota Vikings Man of the Year every year from 2002 through 2007. In 2011, the center received the NFL Walter Payton Man of the Year award for his promotion of literacy among at-risk youth through his HIKE Foundation, which he founded in 2002.

The foundation partners with school districts to promote literacy through programs that reward kids with incentives for out-of-school reading and ensure that children are provided with books.

Birk understands the opportunity he was given to make an impact in the community.

“The platform that football provides you in front of young people is pretty unique,” he said. “I thought that there must be a way to try and do some good with it…To be recognized with an award named after Walter Payton was a huge honor.”

“ALL THE STARS LINED UP”

The NFL’s physical game eventually wears every player down, and entering his 15th season this past fall, Birk was ready to soon retire.

“We were texting towards the beginning of December when the Ravens were in a slump,” Murphy recounted. “He told me, “Coach, you always said that if I was going to hang it up, you would want to know when. I feel like this is the time.’”

But the Ravens had plenty of fight left in them to ensure that the careers of legendary linebacker Ray Lewis, who also retired this off-season, and Birk did not end with a whimper.

They began an improbable roll through the playoffs, eventually reaching Super Bowl XLVII, where they withstood a furious second-half comeback by San Francisco to hold on for a 34-31 triumph.

“That’s the way you want to end your career,” Birk remarked. “To be on a team that had what it takes and to be able to accomplish that goal in your last year—it’s like all the stars lined up right.”

But part of the Pro Bowler was not entirely sure whether to retire, and he didn’t make his final decision until the post-parade confetti had settled.

“Every year you re-evaluate how you feel, where your family is at,” he said. “I was torn a little bit, but I just followed my heart. I considered myself to be a blessed man and that it was time to move on.”

According to Murphy, the next stop for Birk will be the Harvard Athletic Hall of Fame, which he will enter this spring.

For now, Birk is a free man—free from grueling off-season training and free to spend time with his familyand has no regrets.

“I’m just going to pour my time and energy into my family right now,” he said. “I’m just fortunate to have played with so many great players. Being able to win the Super Bowl is as good as it gets and it’s a heck of a way to end my career.”

—Staff writer Justin C. Wong can be reached at justinwong@college.harvard.edu. Follow him on Twitter at @justincwong94.