How Matt Birk went from NFL All-Pro to MN politician – Twin Cities

“Who’s Scott Jensen?”

In Matt Birk’s telling, that’s just about how his political profession began.

It was again in 2021. He was on an airplane flying to Minnesota from Florida, and his spouse, Adrianna, who had change into a fan of former state senator and household doctor Scott Jensen, noticed Jensen on the aircraft. Jensen had gained a social media following for his criticisms of presidency coronavirus responses and was mulling a run for governor.

“She was all excited, and he or she advised me I ought to meet him, so I did,” Birk recalled in a latest interview with the Pioneer Press.

As we speak, Birk is Jensen’s working mate on the Republican ticket for governor, difficult Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat working for a second time period.

If Jensen and Birk prevail, Birk would change into lieutenant governor, a historically unceremonious place that nonetheless would put Birk actually a heartbeat away from the governor’s seat. In Minnesota, the lieutenant governor turns into governor if the governor can’t serve, just like the vice chairman.

RELATED: How has Peggy Flanagan spent the past four years? Advocating, just like before.

This for a man with a Harvard diploma in economics and a Tremendous Bowl ring who swears he by no means anticipated to get into politics.

FROM ST. PAUL TO NFL

Birk, 46, grew up in St. Paul, and he’s keen on describing a childhood lived outdoors, enjoying sports activities with neighborhood youngsters till mothers referred to as them dwelling for dinner.

However he describes himself as “the fats chubby child.” He had tried aggressive soccer, however it didn’t take. Then he found weights.

“I began lifting, and I noticed the outcomes,” mentioned Birk, whose listed peak within the NFL was 6-4 and who performed at 310 kilos. (He’s now a brick-like 240, a weight he says is more healthy for him.) “I noticed the self-discipline and delayed gratification and I beloved doing it.”

He gave soccer one other shot in his sophomore yr at Cretin-Derham Corridor, the place he turned a standout on the gridiron and at school. He picked Harvard over West Level, Yale and the Air Power Academy, and his abilities as an offensive lineman earned him NFL consideration not normally afforded Ivy League gamers.

Birk had lined up a job at Prudential Securities, however he needed to offer professional soccer a shot, and the Vikings drafted him within the sixth spherical.

The NFL profession that ensued is properly documented: He turned the Vikings’ beginning heart, was twice chosen as an All-Professional, was named Walter Payton NFL Man of the Yr in 2011 for his contributions to youth literacy, and in 2012 gained the Tremendous Bowl with the Baltimore Ravens.

Soccer additionally earned Birk tens of millions. His present wealth is unknown; like Jensen, he has declined to make his private tax data public. Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan have launched theirs.

AFTER FOOTBALL

Birk acknowledges his monetary stability has helped enable him to pursue his present enterprise.

“That’s one of many, quote, ‘issues’ (with politics): How many individuals can put their lives on maintain? Their work life, and their household, and go do that? There’s not many. We all the time lament, ‘The place are all the great candidates?’ Nicely, it’s a really small pool to select from due to what it requires folks to do, what it requires folks to sacrifice.”

It wasn’t a straight path from the NFL to politics, although.

When Birk retired from soccer in 2013, he wasn’t positive the place his life would lead.

“I’m not likely a planner,” he mentioned. “I type of take life because it comes, and it’s sorta labored out for me at this level. I simply keep open to issues. I assume I assumed I’d simply be teaching a number of ball and elevating youngsters.”

He’s doing each. His interview with the Pioneer Press passed off as he strode by the grounds of the state Capitol, leaving a information convention with Jensen and on a strict time constraint to achieve his truck, the place he might change, at the very least partially, out of his go well with and into extra applicable apparel for teaching youth soccer apply.