One of the toughest decisions for any player (or person for that matter) to make is leaving your longtime home to move to a new area of the country.

That’s exactly what C Matt Birk did today, in choosing to leave the city of his birth in Minnesota in favor of playing for the Baltimore Ravens next year.

According to Len Pasquarelli (ESPN), Birk chose the Ravens offer of $12 million over four seasons over a similar offer from his hometown Minnesota Vikings, the only team he has played for throughout his illustrious career. Birk is a six time Pro Bowl center and should fill in nicely for the Ravens where Jason Brown (Rams) left off.

This move hurts the Vikings in a number of ways, most of all in the makeup of their interior offensive line. Instead of having their long time leader calling the shots in the middle, Minnesota will likely have to use a combination of journeyman Curtis Loeffler and an untested second year player in John Sullivan to replace Birk, a change I doubt the Vikings QBs are relishing at the moment.

Birk is also a very influential member of the team in the Twin Cities community, actively serving with numerous charities and spending a large portion of his time off the field in studio with the local radio hosts discussing the Vikings as a whole.

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