It may be a little early to talk about football, but there’s never
an off-season to talk about a foot-
ball player who excelled on the
field and let his light shine off the field.  
When asked who the most important player on any team is, the answer usually is the quarterback. We don’t stop to think that unless the center snaps the ball, nothing happens.  
I think the majority of fans are like me. We know the names of the quarterback, the running backs, the linebackers and the receivers but pay little attention to the interior linemen.
Last week, on Fox News, Hannity had a special guest named Matt Birk. That name didn’t ring a bell even though he was the center on the Super Bowl Champion Baltimore Ravens Team. Matt Birk – a two-time all pro, a six-time pro-bowl selection and a one-time Super Bowl champion. He was named the sixth smartest athlete by Sporting News in 2010-2011.
He is also a pro-life activist. His wife volunteers at a crisis pregnancy center, and he participated in the Maryland March for Life in 2011 and 2012. He is a Catholic and the father of six children.
Birk established the HIKE foundation in 2002, which seeks to impact the lives of at-risk children by providing programs and resources needed to guide a child through elementary, middle and high school and also college.  
The foundation launched “Ready, Set, Read,” a program that reaches 100,000 Baltimore students to help them improve their reading skills.  
He received the Walter Peyton Man of the Year Award in 2011 for his commitment to improving literacy among at-risk youth.  
Was his resume the reason Hannity had him on his Fox News show? No, he was asked because he did not accept an invitation by President Obama to attend the
celebratory meeting with the president honoring the Super Bowl Champion Ravens. He didn’t make a big issue about not attending, but the press did and called to ask him why.
He told Hannity he didn’t go
but has great respect for the office
of the presidency. Birk said, “Five
or six weeks ago, our president made a comment in a speech, and he said, ‘God bless Planned Parenthood.’ Planned Parenthood performs about 330,000 abortions a year. I am Catholic. I am active in the pro-life movement, and I just felt like I couldn’t deal with that. I couldn’t endorse that in any way.”
Birk played the position but was never the center of attention of the Ravens team.  However, he grabbed the national spotlight on the Hannity show and was on center stage because of his convictions and courage. He allowed his light to shine and sent a righteousness message to a national audience.          
If you have any questions or comments, please write to Get High on Life, P.O. Drawer U, Reserve, LA 70084, call 985-652-8477, or email hkeller@comcast.net.