Matt Birk on Humble Preparation

Matt Birk played in the NFL for 15 years. He came into the NFL as a 6th round pick after going to Harvard as an undergraduate. Matt played for the Baltimore Ravens, winning a Super Bowl with them, and he also played for the Minnesota Vikings for a number of years, which was his hometown football team. Matt was a 2-time All-Pro, a 6-time Pro Bowl selection, a Super Bowl winner as well.

During the episode, Matt will share how he wound up at Harvard, what that experience was like for him, and how it helped shape him for the pros. In the NFL, Matt thrived. He changed positions in the NFL, moving from tackle to center on the offensive line. We discuss what that transition was like and all that he had to keep track of being at the forefront of the offense. Matt will also discuss humble preparation in our conversation and how valuable that was during his career. Lastly, speaking from the perspective of someone who played a position where you only get recognized for making mistakes, Matt also discusses the importance of not getting caught up on failures.

In this episode, we discuss what life was like for Matt as a kid and his overall journey (5:07), the other sports he played as a kid and why he didn’t excel at them (11:05), if being overweight as a kid influenced how he was treated (11:57), his relationships with his siblings and how that impacted his sports career (12:47), if he played other sports in high school (16:42), his views on academics growing up and if it came easily to him (18:08), what it was like for him and what his comfort level was at Harvard (19:56), if he felt like he belonged academically and athletically while in school there (21:27), if he loved football (26:30), what his mindset on gameday was like (30:06), if he prepared during the week with a fear of failure on Sundays (30:45), his mindset as a center on a running play as opposed to his mindset on a passing play (35:30), if he was fully reliant on muscle memory as a center or if he had to shift between focusing fully on snapping the ball to the quarterback and focusing fully on blocking (36:55), how Matt would shift his mind between preparation and performance (43:31), Matt’s journey as an underdog and how that impacted his mindset on gameday to not only compete, but to excel at the highest level (47:28), if he felt like he had an “unfair advantage” in his levels of intelligence and his ability to remember plays, the role faith plays in his life, and if he would leverage those two attributes on gameday (50:05), what he noticed in his 15 years were the commonalities among high-performing, elite teams (55:52), and what he has hanging on his walls at home today (59:35).

You can check out Matt’s company “Matt Birk and Company” here, and you can follow Matt on Instagram @mattbirk77!

Thank you so much to Matt for coming on the podcast!

I wrote a book called “Shift Your Mind” that was released in October of 2020, and you can order it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers.

Thanks for listening.

-Brian