Prior to the AFC Championship Game, we speculated if former Minnesota Vikings' center Matt Birk could, potentially, be finishing his career when the Baltimore Ravens ended their season. The attention was focused on linebacker Ray Lewis, but Birk had a pretty damn fine career in his own right, and things around the Minnesota native were much quieter, as you would expect.

Well, it turns out that we were on the money with that one, according to the latest news from Adam Schefter coming over the Twitter.

Ravens C Matt Birk will announce his retirement today, the Baltimore Sun reports. Birk is poised to succeed off field as he did on it.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 22, 2013

Birk was drafted by the Vikings out of Harvard in 1998, and spent his first eleven NFL seasons with the Vikings, being named the Vikings' Man of the Year every year from 2002 to 2007. He's probably a borderline Hall of Fame candidate. . .he was an outstanding performer for most of his time in the NFL, but centers tend to have a hard time getting recognized in Canton. (See also: Tingelhoff, Mick.)

Congratulations to Matt Birk on a distinguished NFL career, and for being able to go out on top with a Super Bowl ring. It's just a damn shame that he couldn't do it in the "right" purple jersey.