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

Dave Orrick, Pioneer Press
·8 min read
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“Who’s Scott Jensen?”

In Matt Birk’s telling, that’s pretty much how his political career started.

It was back in 2021. He was on an airplane flying to Minnesota from Florida, and his wife, Adrianna, who had become a fan of former state senator and family physician Scott Jensen, spotted Jensen on the plane. Jensen had gained a social media following for his criticisms of government coronavirus responses and was mulling a run for governor.

“She was all excited, and she told me I should meet him, so I did,” Birk recalled in a recent interview with the Pioneer Press.

Today, Birk is Jensen’s running mate on the Republican ticket for governor, challenging Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat running for a second term.

If Jensen and Birk prevail, Birk would become lieutenant governor, a traditionally unceremonious position that nonetheless would put Birk literally a heartbeat away from the governor’s seat. In Minnesota, the lieutenant governor becomes governor if the governor can’t serve, like the vice president.

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

This for a guy with a Harvard degree in economics and a Super Bowl ring who swears he never expected to get into politics.

FROM ST. PAUL TO NFL

Birk, 46, grew up in St. Paul, and he’s fond of describing a childhood lived outside, playing sports with neighborhood kids until moms called them home for dinner.

But he describes himself as “the fat chubby kid.” He had tried competitive football, but it didn’t take. Then he discovered weights.

“I started lifting, and I saw the results,” said Birk, whose listed height in the NFL was 6-4 and who played at 310 pounds. (He’s now a brick-like 240, a weight he says is healthier for him.) “I saw the discipline and delayed gratification and I loved doing it.”

He gave football another shot in his sophomore year at Cretin-Derham Hall, where he became a standout on the gridiron and in class. He picked Harvard over West Point, Yale and the Air Force Academy, and his skills as an offensive lineman earned him NFL attention not usually afforded Ivy League players.

Birk had lined up a job at Prudential Securities, but he wanted to give pro football a shot, and the Vikings drafted him in the sixth round.

The NFL career that ensued is well documented: He became the Vikings’ starting center, was twice selected as an All-Pro, was named Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year in 2011 for his contributions to youth literacy, and in 2012 won the Super Bowl with the Baltimore Ravens.

Football also earned Birk millions. His current wealth is unknown; like Jensen, he has declined to make his personal tax records public. Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan have released theirs.

AFTER FOOTBALL

Birk acknowledges his financial stability has helped allow him to pursue his current venture.

“That’s one of the, quote, ‘problems’ (with politics): How many people can put their lives on hold? Their work life, and their family, and go do this? There’s not many. We always lament, ‘Where are all the good candidates?’ Well, it’s a very small pool to choose from because of what it requires people to do, what it requires people to sacrifice.”

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

When Birk retired from football in 2013, he wasn’t sure where his life would lead.

“I’m not really a planner,” he said. “I kind of take life as it comes, and it’s sorta worked out for me at this point. I just stay open to things. I guess I thought I’d just be coaching a lot of ball and raising kids.”

He’s doing both. His interview with the Pioneer Press took place as he strode through the grounds of the state Capitol, leaving a news conference with Jensen and on a strict time constraint to reach his truck, where he could change, at least partially, out of his suit and into more appropriate attire for coaching youth football practice.

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Birk and his wife have eight children, ages 20, 17, 15, 14, 12 and 10, with two 6-year-olds. Two of the children are adopted — a fact that comes up when he and Jensen speak about plans to streamline adoption regulations, which is tied to their opposition to abortion.

Like many freshly retired NFL players, Birk’s post-NFL career wasn’t clear.

“I would say when you’re done playing, there’s a period of wandering. Because your whole life is different. Everything is different. So I tried a couple of different things.”

Birk worked for the NFL, started several business ventures, authored a book, established a charity and co-founded Unity Catholic High School in Burnsville in 2019.

ENTERING POLITICS

Catholicism has always been central to Birk’s ideology, and he began speaking out on hot-button social issues even before he retired from football. In 2012, he penned an opinion piece in the Star Tribune opposing the idea of “redefining marriage” as anything other than between a man and a woman. A month later, Minnesota voters defeated a statewide ballot question that would have effectively banned same-sex marriage in the state constitution. Today, Birk brushes aside questions on the matter, noting that same-sex marriage is currently legal under Minnesota law and has been protected by the U.S. Supreme Court.

He became a vocal member of the pro-life movement that seeks to ban or restrict abortions — a point Walz and Flanagan have attempted to criticize him for as Democrats seek to make the 2022 election in part a referendum on abortion. Jensen and Birk have generally sought to frame the campaign around concerns over inflation and crime, consistent with other Republicans.

But Birk said he doesn’t consider his involvement with the pro-life movement as entering politics. He said it wasn’t until he met Jensen that he began to consider getting involved, first becoming an honorary co-chair of Jensen’s campaign, although, like many conservatives, he said he had a feeling that had been brewing in him.

“I think it started off with just concern, a general level of concern for our country and our state,” he said. “So I started going to (Jensen) events and I saw the movement was piling on. I saw couple hundred people showing up. They’d never been involved before. I said, ‘Man, this guy, something’s going on here.’ It was about a year after that he asked me to be his running mate, and it kind of took me by surprise because I had never thought of that. Never thought it was something I wanted to do. So we talked it through. It made sense, and I said I can be teammates with this guy because of who he is and what he’s doing, so here we are.”

‘TEAMMATES’

In football, the center is the first player to touch the ball on every play from scrimmage. Then he typically snaps it to the quarterback. That’s how Jensen and Birk typically operate in news conferences and rallies, with the microphone filling in for the football. It’s an appropriate metaphor: Jensen, 67, carries a slim runner’s build, and he’s dwarfed by Birk — a spectacle that serves as an occasional fallback for humor when levity is called for. And Jensen played quarterback in high school.

But the metaphor might end there. Jensen doesn’t bark calls over his offensive line, but generally employs the soft voice of a bedside doctor. Birk, on the other hand, has taken on a forceful presence in the campaign, especially on social media, where he has gotten into personal tiffs and employed such modern-age tactics as challenging Flanagan to a debate. (No such debate has been scheduled.)

Jensen also calls on Birk’s academic bona fides at times. At a recent news conference announcing his “jobs and economic plan,” for example, Jensen considered lateraling a question about the governor’s limited role in addressing inflation to Birk. “His background in economics will give him, if you will, the leg up on me in terms of understanding some deeper things,” Jensen said before offering his own answer, after which Birk offered his: “Make their paychecks bigger” by lowering taxes.

BIGGEST SURPRISES

What are Birk’s biggest surprises since becoming a candidate?

“I think, honestly, how much I enjoy it. I’ve been to places in the state I’ve never been to. I meet so many people. I’ve had great conversations — like, good conversations with supporters, and tough conversations with people who aren’t supporters. I’m extroverted. I like people.

“The other biggest surprise, the other side of the coin, is it’s way too much time away from my family. But it’s short-term. Campaigning is short-term.”

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