Several Vikings to Donate Part of Their Game Checks This Weekend

Earlier this month, Minnesota Vikings center Matt Birk announced that he'd be donating $50,000 of his Week 16 game check to the Gridiron Greats Foundation, which is "a non-profit corporation that has been established to provide financial assistance and coordination of social services to retired players who are in dire need due to a variety of reasons including inadequate disability and/or pensions."

Judd Zulgad of The Star Tribune reports that Birk's teammates Jared Allen, Gus Frerotte, Steve Hutchinson, Jim Kleinsasser, Ben Leber, Chad Greenway, Ryan Longwell and John Sullivan will also donate a portion of their paychecks this week, as well.

“Ultimately it’s all about the dollars and we’ll see how many dollars we end up raising,” said Birk. “But the people I talk to or the interviews I give, I tell them, you guys [in the media], the front office, coaches, everybody should be concerned about this issue because I think there is a debt of gratitude owed to all these guys who helped build the game into what it is today. Everybody involved with the NFL benefits from that. It’s important, too, because if baseball is the national past time I think today football is American’s game. … This is an issue that is kind of a black eye on the league and the game and is something [people] should at least become informed about.”