For his charity work, Birk was named the Vikings’ Man of the Year six consecutive times from 2002 to 2007 and earned the prestigious NFL Walter Payton Man of the Year award in February 2012.
“He’s a world-class football player—clearly that’s what all-pro means,” Murphy said. “[But] as a person he’s even better. He’s just a remarkable human being—extraordinarily loyal, extraordinarily humble, a person who really gets it in the sense that he understands how fortunate he is compared to a lot of people in the world, and he wants to make sure he gives back as much as possible.”
In 2009, Birk also became one of the first three NFL players to agree to posthumously donate his brain and spinal cord tissue to the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy at the Boston University School of Medicine, where it will be used to study football-related head trauma.
“It's my obligation as a professional football player to try to do my part to make the game as safe as possible for future generations,” Birk explained.
A WIDESPREAD LEGACY
Birk’s work on and off the field has often meant more to others than it has to him.
Murphy explained that he routinely points to the center when recruiting as an example that players can have success in the NFL coming out of his program.
Miami Dolphins head coach Joe Philbin, who served as Harvard’s offensive coordinator during Birk’s senior year, said he keeps in touch with the lineman regularly.
“I was able to get a job at the University of Iowa from Harvard because of Matt,” Philbin explained. “During that spring he got drafted, I would have calls from scouts and O-line coaches.... Having coached him certainly helped, no question.”
But when Birk looks back over the course of his career, he notes that he never expected to get where he is today, getting ready to start in football’s biggest game.
“I was just trying to hold on every year,” Birk said. “That's how I've always looked at it.... Everybody has their share of failures in football and in life. Football teaches you that you just keep working, work as hard as you can and get as good as you can. That gives you the best chance of success.”
For Birk’s former coaches, seeing the lineman achieve that success has been extremely rewarding.
“I was there for the recruitment of Matt, and just the kind of guy he is now, the kind of leader he is, the kind of football player he is, the husband, the father he is, the great guy that he is now to be around, working with him again when he’s in his mid-30s, that’s just a great deal,” said Ravens senior offensive assistant Craig Ver Steeg, who worked for Harvard from 1994-95.
“It’s truly a testament to [Birk’s] desire to be his best at everything he does,” Murphy added. “He’s a very driven guy in a positive way.”
So as retirement rumors swirl around the center once more, Birk is just trying to savor each remaining moment of a career nobody expected him to have when he first arrived in college.
“This is a heck of a way to make a living and it's a heck of a lot of fun,” Birk said. “I just try to enjoy it every day and every year.”
—Staff writer Scott A. Sherman can be reached at ssherman13@college.harvard.edu.