Matt Birk has decided not to participate in the Vikings‘ voluntary off-season conditioning program. This has set off rumblings that Birk is unhappy over the team’s reticence to negotiate an extension with him, despite their eager willingness to re-sign veterans like Kevin Williams, Pat Williams and Bryant McKinnie (I bet they sort of regret that last one though).
Birk’s contract is up after the coming season. He will also be 32 after the coming season. And he’s had umpteen surgeries for sports hernias, and he clearly wasn’t the same player last year that he was a few years ago. So yeah…it’s possible the Vikings are not that interested in having him around beyond 2008-2009.
That being said…Matt Birk is still a pretty solid NFL center, and it’s not like you have a lot of other options around at that position (unless you plan on moving Ryan Cook to center, where he played in college before someone had the bright idea to turn him into a right tackle). The problem is that the Vikings might not believe Birk is worth what someone else might be willing to give him on the open market. Brad Childress, if you’ve noticed, is not shy about dumping veterans he believes are on the downside, and he’s generally tended to replace said veterans with younger, cheaper players.
In short, it looks an awful lot like Matty Birk will be playing his last season in purple this year. And that’s sorta sad cause Matt’s been a terrific player, a great leader and an all-around fun fellow to have on the team. And…he went to Harvard.