Baltimore Ravens @Ravens Matt Birk should go down as one of the Ravens' best free-agentsignings ever: http://bmob.us/54m Expand Eisenberg: Matt Birk's Departure Diminishes Ravens Matt Birk should go down as one of the team's best free-agent signings. Baltimore Ravens @Ravens · Follow The only appropriate response to center Matt Birk's decision to walk away from the Ravens is … applause. Everybody, how about a hand? After playing high-level NFL football for 15 years, earning six Pro Bowl selections along the way, Birk finally experienced the sensation of Super Bowl confetti falling on his shoulders earlier this month. He had put off his retirement a year ago to take one more crack at getting to the top, and lo and behold, he did. It's the perfect way to go out. Birk deserves it. A father of six and recent Walter Payton Man of the Year Award winner, he is smart, funny and level-headed, a community-oriented, hands-on family man as well as a top player; quite simply one of the classiest people ever to put on the Ravens' uniform. He even walked away the right way Friday, as a certified adult would, by using his announcement to call attention to a community reading center at an elementary school his foundation supports. Some fans probably aren't sorry to see him go because he is 36, no longer a Pro Bowl player and the Ravens can use the salary cap space he is saving them (reportedly $2.05 million) by retiring. But that's misguided logic. Birk's departure, while fitting and appropriate, doesn't help the Ravens; it diminishes them. It's something else for them to overcome as they set out to try to win another title in 2013.
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