Thread: Birk bounces back

[size=18px]Is Matt Birk Hurt?????[/size]
Look here: http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/clubhouse?team=min on the right side under team injuries and it lists Matt Birk as "Questionable." Anyone know what the deal is?

"COJOMAY" wrote:

[size=18px]Is Matt Birk Hurt?????[/size]
Look here: http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/clubhouse?team=min on the right side under team injuries and it lists Matt Birk as "Questionable." Anyone know what the deal is?

Don't know. The details are hidden behind an Insider link. It just starts out saying that Birk has participated at full speed so far in training camp...

Anyone out there an Insider Subscriber?

"NodakPaul" wrote:

"COJOMAY" wrote:

[size=18px]Is Matt Birk Hurt?????[/size]
Look here: http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/clubhouse?team=min on the right side under team injuries and it lists Matt Birk as "Questionable." Anyone know what the deal is?

Don't know. The details are hidden behind an Insider link. It just starts out saying that Birk has participated at full speed so far in training camp...

Anyone out there an Insider Subscriber?

No, but I don't think he's hurt unless it happened today. This article was published today and it was talking about how he's glad to be back. He is listed as (hip) problems but that is just a residual listing as questionable. If he was really unable to practice he would be on the PUP list. False alarm I'm guessing.

Lets hope its just a false alarm. With Birk back and ready to go, I look for us to be near the top in rushing this year. Man if these guys protect Brad then we can be a contender. The heart of the team is the Offensive Line and it looks like we got it goin' on.

I think it's an old posting also, Birk has been practicing daily and playing at 100% from what I've read.......Unless something happenend today.....Let's just hope not...

Just read todays camp update at KFAN, no where was Birk mentioned being injured....Must just be an old labeling of him that wasn't dropped....

[size=18px]Jim Souhan: Finally healthy, Birk ready to return to front and center[/size]

The St. Paul native sat out last season because of his hernia problems, but he is now back at playing the sport he has learned to embrace over the years.

Jim Souhan, Star Tribune
Last update: August 06, 2006 – 12:44 AM

MANKATO - Vikings center Matt Birk, apparently an aspiring sports reporter, offered this news flash:
"I don't know if you noticed," he said. "Me and Joe Mauer went to the same high school. It's not very well-publicized, but there you go."

Thanks for the tip, Matty B.

Birk had just finished practice at Vikings training camp. His fellow Cretin-Derham Hall alum, Mauer, is the current cover boy for Sports Illustrated, and now Birk finally feels frisky enough to escape the cover of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Mauer and Birk might be the two most popular players on Minnesota's two most popular teams, and they have more than a hometown and high school in common. Mauer had to overcome a knee injury to become a potential batting champ. Birk spent the last two years overcoming sports hernias that threatened to end his career.

"Not feeling good for a long time, I wondered if that was it," Birk said. "I have a new appreciation for this opportunity -- just the opportunity to play -- right now.

"When I was young, I thought I'd play as long as I wanted. Now I realize how fragile this is."

On the first day of the 2004 Vikings training camp, during conditioning drills, Birk thought, "Something just is not right."

He missed four games that year because of the sports hernias, then all of 2005.

Sitting out taught him that he loves playing football more than he ever expected to -- and that his future will be in the kitchen, not the coaching profession.

"That," he said, "is correct. Last year was so boring, especially gameday, just standing there and having to watch. The one thing I did learn is I probably won't go into coaching when I'm done."

Now he's the namesake of "Matty B's Supper Club" in St. Paul, and will be opening another in Minneapolis in time for the season opener. "It will be at 501 Washington," he said. "You can put that in there if you want."

Sorry, Matt. Can't do it.

Birk says he knew nothing about restaurants "other than I liked eating in them." Now he's the rare sporting entrepreneur who can spell the word.

He went to Harvard, you know.

"I like hanging out there just to hear the stories people tell," Birk said. "It's the old Gallivan's, so there are people who have been coming in there for 30 years. It sounds cheesy, but everybody's got a story."

Birk's is this: "I didn't start playing until I was a sophomore in high school. I was going to play for one year, then I got talked into another year, and another year, and then I got talked into playing in college. I've already played for about 15 years longer than I expected.

"Do I regret not doing something else? Put it this way -- doing this for a living is probably the toughest, most difficult thing I would ever try. You push yourself and see what you've got on the inside. This game, it tests me every day.

"I never walk off the field saying, 'Man, I'm just awesome.' You always think about the bad plays. It's that constant battle. This game terrorizes you, and it keeps you awake at night, but that's what keeps you coming back."

From the modest beginnings of his career, Birk ascended to four Pro Bowls. "I've got boxes and boxes of stuff from Pro Bowls, signed by you name it," he said. "And I couldn't care less. That stuff is in boxes in the garage or basement.

"What I keep on my shelves is a Cretin football helmet signed by me, Chris Weinke, Corbin Lacina, Derek Engler and Steve Walsh, all former Cretin football players.

"Now, that's cool."

Birk, 30, can't predict how much longer he'll play. He knows his current optimism could end with one awkward block, one stab of pain.

So, adopting Mauer's Zen approach, he doesn't worry about it. "Hey, to use a Joe Mauer cliche, I'm just taking it day by day," he said. "You can't hit .400 in one day."

Birk obviously didn't make it to Harvard without acing that popular Cretin class, Sports Clichés 101.


Jim Souhan can be heard Sundays from 10 a.m.-noon on KSTP AM 1500. [email protected]

Jim Souhan: Finally healthy, Birk ready to return to front and center