CDH Honored with NFL Super Bowl Golden Football
September 22, 2015
Cretin-Derham Hall graduate, Matt Birk’94, Super Bowl Champ with Baltimore Ravens, former Minnesota Viking, and current NFL Director of Football Development, presented a Golden Football to students and faculty today, Tuesday, September 22, at an all-school assembly.
The National Football League is celebrating the 50th Super Bowl by honoring players and coaches of previous Super Bowl games by highlighting champions on and off the field. Athletes and coaches are recognized, along with their alma maters for positively impacting the game of football. Specially selected high schools will be highlighted by the NFL with local and possible national coverage now and leading up to the Super Bowl on February 7, 2016, as well as be presented with the commemorative Golden Football.
The NFL’s High School Honor Roll is designed to highlight not just those athletes that can compete at the Super Bowl level, but also the community that was instrumental in each athlete’s path to playing at the highest level.
Cretin-Derham Hall has produced 4 players who were on Super Bowl teams: Marcus Freeman’02, Derek Engler’92, and Corbin Lacina’89. In addition, the CDH football program has sent an impressive list of players to the NFL and college system. Cretin-Derham Hall is proud to welcome back Birk and other Super Bowl athletes, not only for their accomplishments in pro sports, but also, for the strength of their contributions outside of sports.
In high school, Birk was a standout player at CDH in football, basketball and track and field. “Matt was not only a multi-sport athlete, he excelled in academics and service,” noted Mal Scanlan, Birk’s high school football coach. “What is interesting about Matt is that he never even played football until his sophomore year in high school here at Cretin-Derham Hall. Yet, his personal character and commitment to personal goals clearly impacted who he was both on and off the field, even in high school – and the football career sure seemed to work out well for him!”
His line coach, Mike Scanlan, current head football coach at Cretin-Derham Hall, recalls that Birk worked hard to put his education first. At one point, he was nominated for the Minnesota Coaches All-Star Game and declined the opportunity to play because he needed to work – he needed the money to finance his education. “Matt understood that while athletics was important, it was his education that he would depend on,” explained Mike Scanlan.”
Birk went on to earn a degree in economics from Harvard University, and was the recipient of the 2011 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year award for his excellence both on and off the field, including his commitment to emphasizing the important of education through his H.I.K.E Foundation (hope, inspiration, knowledge and education.) Minnesota Vikings named him Man of the Year six times. He and his wife, Adrianna, are the parents of six children.