The Dave Pasch Podcast - Zach Ertz

as a football player. We'll also talk about donut Gate, a current controversy in the locker room with both zach Ertz and J. J. Watt. Zach's new contract with the team were some of the reasons he decided to stay here in Arizona with the Cardinals. His thoughts on the twenty twenty two season. What do you expects from Kyler Murray? What the offense might look like without DeAndre Hopkins the first six weeks of the season. Kyler is the most

talented player I've ever been around, player player period. There is no doubt. There's nothing he cannot do on a football gold Trey McBride, the rookie tight end out of Colorado State. How the mentoring is going of mcfride, and trying to get him ready to help Ertz and company in the fall. We are presented by betmgm, the official sports betting partner of the Arizona Cardinals, and by Hila River Hotels and Casinos. Sign up for bet mgm today using code cards one thousand and get your first bet

risk free up to one thousand dollars. New customer offer paid in free bets. Visit betmgm dot com for terms and conditions. Twenty one and over Arizona only. Please gamble responsibly. Gambling problem called one eight hundred. Next step. Now here's our guest for this week's edition of the Dave Pash Podcast, Cardinals tight End, Zach Ertz. Zach, appreciate you doing this. Let's start with the news of the last month, and that's you're going to be a dad. Yeah. How's that feel? Man? Oh,

it's amazing. We're so excited. Julie and I are just ecstatic to be parents. Obviously, it's a different season of life, something that we've never done before, this being our first one, so we're extremely excited. Getting everything set up, getting the nursery set up, a lot of things that we're probably not prepared for, but I feel like we got a lot of great people to lean on and can't wait for them to come. Do we know the gender? It

is a boy? Congratulations? Man, congratulations, I've got one myself. He's now sixteen, trying to figure out how to drive. Oh man, Yeah. I don't look forward to to him being on the streets or me being on the streets in a different car. That's one thing. If you're sitting next to him, it's another few or another car. How do you think being a dad will impact you as a football player. I think it will put a lot of things in perspective. I mean I'm excited about that.

You know, no matter how the day goes here at work, I know I'm coming home to not only my wife Julie loving me, but there will be a son there that will just view me as his hero per se And no matter how my day is going, the moment I walk in the door, all those problems will probably dissipate when I see them. But the way I approached the game, the way I go about my business, I don't think we'll change. I can't answer that definitively, but

as of now, I'm just excited. I know it's a big responsibility to be a dad, something that I definitely don't take lightly. So I'll take the same attitude I have playing football to be the best dad I can be. It's probably more of a change for your wife because she's a professional athlete as well. Do you think that she'll continue to be a professional athlete once you get through this or is it, you know what, the first time going through this? We have no idea. Yeah, I

mean I think we're I think that's the approach. I'm never going I told people all the time, I'm never going to be the one to tell Julie, hey, I think it's time for you to be done. I mean that is I'll die on the hill that Julie was the best player in the world when she was playing in her prime. Not only as a husband but as a football fan, that was how I viewed it. And so if she wants to come back and play, great, If she doesn't, great as well, we'll adjust either way.

What I have loved over the past nine months after since the Olympics in August, she's been home every day and this is the longest time we've been together consistently since we started dating. We started dating in college, she went to Santa Clara. I went to Stanford, so we did a little long distance then and then I got drafted and it was in Philadelphia, and she was a senior in college, and then after that she was in Chicago. I was in Philly. So it was always months or

weeks at a time. But this has been a great, a really good season for us to kind of just really hang out each and every day, love each other each and every day, and it's been really fun. She's from here, right and family is still here as well. Yep. So was that a big factor for you guys and making a decision about staying here with the Cardinals? It was. The whole process was a process. I guess there were

multiple factors. Julie has said all along, even a few years ago when we were knew our time was running out in Philly, she was like, I don't care where we play, just go where you want to go and I'll be there regardless. And so that takes a lot of pressure off of me as someone that is leading the family to kind of make a football decision. Obviously, her input and her well being is paramount to me, but the fact that we have a little one on the way and all the doctors. We've already seen her here.

Her family's here, and my mom will be here. My mom was gonna be wherever I was going to go play, so we'll always have help near. But we love Arizona. Julie loves Arizona. It's hard not to love Arizona, especially as an athlete, because the weather is always good. Even when it's one hundred degrees. The body still feels amazing running around out there. It's not like Philadelphia, where it was freezing and it took half of practice just to

get warmed up. But it was a great decision. We are very blessed to be here and I'm excited about the future. It's a great place, man. This is my twenty first year, will be my twenty first season doing the Cardinals games. Moved here in two thousand and two, had bounced around to different cities, and as soon as we got here, it's it's hard not to love. Yeah. And the team's been great about you know, allow me to do all the stuff with ESPN and still be able to have my home base here and still have

a team, a team to root for. So not surprised to hear that you love it here, because I haven't met many people that come here that want to leave. Yeah, no doubt about it. You said something interesting about you realized that your time in Philly was coming to an end. And I'm curious why that happened, Like, why did you

think it was coming to an end? Was it just a contractual thing where you wanted something financially that you didn't think you were going to get, or you didn't feel like you were fitting into what they were trying to do anymore. I think a little bit of both. Obviously, the contract thing was pretty public, so everyone knew what was going on there. And also I think they were kind of resetting. Obviously they moved on from Carston, they moved on from Doug and when everyone was kind of

on that way out, I've kind of figured it. There was kind of a shifting of the guard per se. They were going to go in a different direction. And I told them that all along when we were going through the contract stuff. They had a young tight end at the time, it was pretty good player, and I just said, hey, listen, I don't care what the decision is. I'm not going to be upset either way, but just please make one like don't hang me out to dry or whatever, and we were should have to land in

Arizona midway through the year. I wish it happened a little earlier, but I couldn't control that, and understand it's part of the business. I have no ill feelings for anyone in that building. I still talk to a lot of people in the building, a lot of long time teammates that I played a lot of football with. I'll still still talk to them. But yeah, it's one of those things. Cardinals play Philly this year, but the game's here, so there's a chance at some point you get to

go back to Philadelphia and get a standing ovation. I was there. I did a couple of sixer games in the playoffs, and I did a game in the regular season in Philly, and it was JJ Reddick's first game as an analyst. And JJ was there for one year, but he got an incredible ovation from the crowd. Was up on the JumboTron. I mean, there were autograph seekers throughout the night for JJ, who again was there for

a year. You won a super Bowl in Philadelphia, First of all, what was it like, not just winning a super Bowl but doing in a city like Philadelphia, And what do you think it will be like to go back there one day as a visiting player. Yeah, it would be special. Obviously, I grew up so much there. I pretty much spent a third of my life in Philadelphia.

I considered at home for so long. I don't know if we'll end up there or not when I'm done playing, but being there winning the super Bowl, the city's first super Bowl in a city that lives in breezes of the Eagles, was special. The parade was an experience that I'll never forget, and that experience is really driving me now. Just experiencing that feeling of winning a Super Bowl hoisting the Lombardi is really motivating me each and every day because I would need. I feel like I need to

feel that feeling again. And so that attitude and that success we had was driving me today to hopefully repeat that here in Arizona. You've played for a wide variety of personalities as head coaches. Obviously Hardball you had David

Shaw a little bit right as well, Chip. I love Chip, and I don't know what kind of relationship you had with Chip Kelly, but he's just a great guy, fun guy to be around and all the criticism that he took for doing what he did, I realized some of it you can't do in terms of just full go every single all acceleration, no breaks. I get it, you can't do that in the NFL. But a lot of what the scheme and some of the things he's doing, most everybody does now. I mean they've copied a lot

of stuff that they said couldn't work in the NFL. Yeah, I mean, I've obviously played with an eclectic group. Coach Harbaugh was perfect for me when I was eighteen years old coming out of high school, didn't know any better. Dude just mentally manipulated me to be the best I could and I appreciate him to this day. Coach was a phenomenal coach. We had, Andrew Luck myself. It's just so much talent, David de Castro, Doug Baldwin, all these guys.

Our time at Stanford was so far and we were so good, and then getting drafted by Chip was a really good thing for not only me, but I think a lot of other guys because he was obviously he had his ways on the and you can debate them either which way. But the stuff that he taught us off the field in terms of prioritizing your body, prioritizing nutrition stuff and all that aspect. I would say Chip taught us a lot and the intensity at practice that he demanded, and a lot of guys didn't last in

Philly or were shipped out because of that. I would say the guys that stayed and really embraced that really set the culture in that building for a long time, and we practiced our butts off, whether it was with Chip, whether it was with Doug, whether it was Nick this past year, for the limited time I was there, the intensity the Vets have brought in practice really shaped the culture of that building. And I don't think Chip gets enough credit for that in the standards he set in

that regard. So you listed all those guys, and I'm curious, in your limited experience so far with Cliff, where does Cliff fit in with those guys in terms of personality, style, likability. Cliffs one of the easiest guys to get along with. I haven't met many people that say they can't get along with Cliff Kingsbury. Yeah, I think he's a mold of all of them. You know that this offense is similar to Chip, I would say Cliff's approach is more

like Doug where it's a lot of veteran leadership. He puts a lot of it on the veterans to kind of hold the standards and create the standards. But Cliff grinds like he is here in this building all the time, like four am during the season, doing everything he can to get his guys the ball, put us in positions to be successful. And so in my would I have twelve weeks last year with him, it was awesome. And that's what I told my agent this offseason. I said, Hey,

I want to come back to Arizona. I love playing for this guy. I love the culture in the building, and when they resigned him, it was a big factor and me wanting to come back. You talk about Cliff empowering the veterans to take control of the locker room. How did you handle that because you're coming in there are already a lot of veterans here and the team was winning at the time, So how did you assert yourself in that leadership role in the middle of a

season when you get traded here? Yeah, I mean you don't do a lot, you know, especially early on, it was learned the playbook, figure out the culture, introduce yourself to the guys um and guys that play in the NFL a long time, whether it be seven, eight, nine, ten years, you they're there for they've played for a reason.

They understand what it takes to be to have success, They understand what it takes to win on Sundays, to take care of your bodies, and so there's not much variation in terms of approach in leadership qualities per se among the guys that have been doing it for a long time. But then once you get more comfortable, and once I got more comfortable, and there are some things that we were doing as a team that I felt

where they're limiting us. So sometimes you just got to stand up and address something like whether it be penalties, whether it be pre snap stuff, whether it be discipline, some of the stuff. I was one of the few guys that had won a Super Bowl, and so with that, I don't want to say credential, it is it almost Yeah, with that credibility, I would say that's a better word.

You can kind of say things that maybe a guy that had been here for only ten weeks wouldn't have necessarily been able to say, and so that in those moments when you know when things are kind of hitting the fan, and then it was my turn to kind of take a step up. JJ was gone, So then it was kind of like, well, I better say something because I don't want this to end the wrong way.

With that said, as you look back at the second half of last season, what were some of the pitfalls that you think you guys can avoid this year because you've now been through that and you've had to be in a situation where you've had to speak up or hold somebody accountable. Yeah, I mean I think well, first of all, if I had the answer to why this team has not been successful in the second half of the season in the past couple of years, I would

have already changed it. But looking back at last year, because that's the only experience I've had, it just really came down to execution. And I know that's so cliche or so easy to say, but we were just such a better team on first and second down earlier in the season, then we were at the end of the season, and then the season we're freaking facing second and fifteens, third and twelves and it's just so hard as an NFL team to face that consistently and put points on

the board, and then one thing falls into another. We play good on offense and then the defense plays poorly, or the defense plays poorly and we play great. It's just one of those things that we couldn't figure it all out at the end of the year, and hopefully that adversity will help shift us where you just can't let things snowball in the NFL. Momentum is real in this league, and if you feel like, hey, we're the best team, no one can mess with us, then yeah,

you're gonna play it like that on Sundays. But if you take it hit in the mouth and this happens one, two, three Sundays in rows, like, man, we got to find a way and we just can't let let let that mentality of hey, we can't let that snowball effect, especially the negative aspect right take place. You also lost a Hall of Fame player in DeAndre Hopkins. I mean, things change,

and in the middle of a season. I have to think it's much harder to adjust when you got other guys injured and things are coming at you so fast. You're going from one game to the next as opposed to now where you know Hop is not going to be there. So for Cliff and for you guys, I have to think it's a little bit easier to kind of plan Okay, what are these first six games going to be? Like, what's our offense gonna be? Like? Yeah, I mean, the Hop was obviously a big reason why

I was excited to come out here. I think we only ended up playing like two and a half games together. But I've never played with a guy like Kim where that in Philly. I was always a guy getting double teams. I was the guy that was getting smacked the moment he caught the ball. I was excited for all the attention to be on the Hop, and then I get out here and then I'm getting double team at the end of the year again, I'm like, oh man, here we go again. But you can never replace a guy

like DeAndre. Let's just throw that out there. You can scheme, you can do whatever you want. You're never just gonna respect the moment he crosses those lines on Sunday. There's no woman. There's maybe three other guys on the face of the earth that demand that same attention that the Hop brings to the team. We have to find ways to put guys in position to not replace, but kind of replicate some of his production. I mean, maybe I go play some ex receiver. I did it a lot

in Philly. Maybe some of the other guys. Ron Dale goes outside a little bit more. But I think when you have additional time to do it, it it obviously helps. And people don't forget Kyler got here, missed three games in the middle of the year, so I think the rhythm of everything kind of just faltered in the middle of the season and we just can't get out of it.

Kyler obviously is incredibly talented. You've played with a lot of good quarterbacks, whether it was at Stanford or in Philadelphia, and you know, whether it was somebody that was drafted high or Nick Foles, it wasn't drafted high. But he's a champion. How is Kyler different from quarterbacks you've played with previously, and how is he similar? Kyler is the most talented player I've ever been around, player player period. There is no doubt. There's nothing he cannot do on

a football field. He can be like Lamar Jackson and take off and run for one hundred plus yards in a game. Or in my opinion, you can send in the pocket and not even worry about his legs and just dinking dunk all the way down the field. He's super, super accurate, and there's just nothing he can do. I don't know that. I can't really explain it. That he can throw the ball sixty yards down the field, he can make every throw you want him to throw, and

the guy is super super competitive. You know. I didn't when I was in Philly, we didn't see a lot of the Arizona games. I would just see the highlights and you see this guy running around making all these ridiculous plays against Tennessee Minnesota. And I get out here

and this guy in him an ideal situation. He doesn't leave the pocket, and I think that for me as a pass catcher, I love playing with a quarterback like that because he just wants to play on time, playing rhythm, get the ball out of his hands, get the ball to his guys, and let us make the play. So he doesn't, but he knows that he has the luxury if hey, we need to play or the plays breaking down, he can take off. And so for me, Kyler is

the most talented quarterback player I've probably been around. Andrew Luck is probably the best quarterback I've been around, and Kyler has that ability. Obviously, I played with Andrew in college, so I was kind of lucky to bless to experience that at such a young age. Andrew was probably the best leader I've been around, just he was always one of the guys. He was always pushing people. He loved football, super approachable. Carson is one of my best friends to

this day. Another guy that's huge, can make all the throws super competitive, and I think the best ones I've been around kind of have this competition factor that, hey, no matter what's going on, they feel like they can make a play. And I know Kyler does that in terms of continuing to grow as a leader, which is something that everybody's talked about with Kyler. And you talked about the leadership of Andrew Luck, and I think it was clear whether he was at Stanford or in the NFL.

I mean you could just see it the way he interacted with his teammates, the way he carried himself on the field. He was the guy everybody looked to him, and everybody looks to Kyler because he's the most talented guy on the field. But where does he need to grow. When are you seeing some of that growth as a leader, taking the next step in terms of being the guy that everybody looks to and believes in that he can go out there and take you to the next level. Yeah,

I think everyone wants to finished products. Everyone wants instant success. Everyone wants instant I would say gratification today. And people forget how young Kyler is. He's twenty fourth, twenty five years old. People want this guy that's Tom Brady leading everyone onto the field. But Kyler's better now than he was when I got here in October, and he's going to continue to grow in that regard. I was. I never talked when I was young in the NFL. I would just do my thing, go to work, work my

butt off. I was like, I'm just gonna lead by example and if people want to join me, great, if they don't. Whatever. Now I'm in year ten and I kind of have more of a vocal role per se. And Kyler's gonna find whatever works best for him in this football team, and it's not going to be something that's the prototypical way Kyler. Kids talk behind doors to one on one We've talked many times about football. How do you want certain things? How do you want certain

things that you need to be better at this? Kyler? What do you think about me doing it this way or whatnot. So just because he's not out there leading in the typical fashion doesn't mean he's not a leader of this football team. And I think that next step for him is kind of taking more of that vocal role. And I think it will happen. It's just going to happen, maybe this year, maybe in a couple of years. But he's definitely Everyone wants to point his lack of leadership

or whatever it is. I just don't think that's true. And I don't even know that it's lack of leadership. I think it's just maturity. It's growing, it's realizing. I mean, I think about Larry Fitzgerald when he got here and how it took Larry some time. Larry was twenty years old when he came to the NFL. It took Larry some time to understand the demands of being a superstar player and what the media expects, what the public expects,

I mean, what your teammates expect. There's a lot that goes into that we saw Kobe Bryant over the years grow. People tell stories that Michael Jorge and would he come in for a finals game. The first thing you do would go sit down with TV, we go write in answer all the questions, get up, go on to the next thing. Because he understood there's all these peripheral things you've got to do as part of being a superstar player. I just think that's something Kyler's learning. He's always had

the attention on him. But look at Oklahoma. You know they're trying to protect him. They're trying to make it easy on him. In the NFL, you can't do that because the demands are there. It's part of the collective bargaining agreement. You have to do those things. Yeah, I mean it's the access to players has probably never been easier, and the demands as a player probably never been harder. Just with social media, no matter where you go, everyone

is has their phone out. People can record you doing whatever, and you're just always on and sometimes you just want to be off. Sometimes you just want to go somewhere and don't want to deal with anything. And and Philly, for me, it was heightened out here. It's not as bad as it was in Philly. But a guy like Kyler, he's on every TV each and every day, and so for him, he's gonna grow into it. He's gonna get more and more comfortable and more and more confident in that.

And I mean, the sky's a limit for him. I'm just gonna throw that. You're right, Yeah, you're right. The kid is incredibly talented, and obviously all of us here I want to see him played his potential because if he does, they're gonna be some championships there. All right, a couple more, we'll get you out of here. Tell me about Trey McBride, which you think so far? Yeah, Trey is obviously very talented. He's got really really good hands,

you know. I think when you watch him run around catch football, you can tell it's super supernatural for him to make plays with the football. Obviously, coming in young player from a smaller school, got a lot to work on. But I think he can be a guy that can help us this year, and I would expect him to find a role for sure. Obviously we got a lot

of playmakers in this offense. So even if he has I think my rookie year I had about thirty six forty catches something like that, And so even if he has that, or even if he has less than that, he can still have a great impact act on this team. He's gonna have to find a role in the blocking game obviously, as being a tight end, you have to do that. And so I'm excited to see him in pads.

It's so tough to tell right now. We're kind of playing grass basketball, sure, and then when the Pats come on, I would say, in training, can't you find more about especially tight ends and linemen, running backs and pass protection. But he's definitely a good athlete and got really good hands. I remember doing a game, an Oklahoma game at ESPN the year Kyler won the Heisman, and it was very clear that he and Hollywood had chemistry. There was they

played a game in Iowa State. We did him. He was like week three and he had a a fifty sixty yard pass to Hollywood, got behind the defense and he just took the top off the defense and every the rest of the game they were just concerned about Hollywood. Is it pretty easy, even though, like you said, you're not doing a whole lot to see that there is

some chemistry. I mean Kyler hasn't been here that often, but based on conversations with Kyler or conversations with Hollywood, if there's something that's already there intrinsically between the two, yeah, I mean, I think you can definitely tell they're very close friends. Yeah, they hang out a lot together. But on the field, Hollywood is a guy that is extremely

extremely fast. I mean the first thing you see him doing his role in when he's out there at receiver, and I think it's a great addition for us because he's very different than the other receivers and tight ends we have on this team. He's a guy that the safeties have to back up. And you know, de Hop and I are guys that make a lot of contested catches. We play over the middle of the field, and so

you need a guy that defenses are worried about. So if they're so keyed in in the middle of the field or DeAndre at the outside, you need a guy on the other side that can just run by someone

for sixty yards. And it's hard to have fifteen sixteen twenty play drives in the NFL consistently, but with a guy like Hollywood Rondale, some of these guys that are so fast that can make a play that they make your offensive jobs easier, not only when they touch the ball, but just for the fact that defenses have to account for them. And so I'm excited to play with him. I don't think I've ever played with the receiver that

fast since Deshaun the first time. The second time he didn't play a lot of football together, unfortunately, but the first time, my rookie year, he was unbelievable, and so hopefully it's kind of the same thing with him. I want to ask you about Hurts Family Foundation, some of your charity work, but a couple of those silly questions. First, donut Gate, how did it start? Where is donut Gate right now? With you and JJ Man. First of all, I'm the good guy here. It was five fifteen wake

up or whatever I say. Hey, the night before I'm gonna go get the strength coach donuts, So it wasn't about JJ. First of all, does Buddy Morris eat donuts? I thought the guy eats steel. Bunny Morris is the goat. Let's just we're just gonna say that. I don't know what he eats, but he who loves these bosta donuts out here. So I was like, hey, buddy, you're doing a great job. You've been coming in for JJ, and I early, I'm gonna get you. Get buddy some donuts.

I'm gonna surprise him with some donuts. JJ, I'm going to Bosas. Do you want any donuts? He said, yeah, that sounds awesome. I would love some donuts in the morning. Pink or strawberry. I don't even know what they're called, was his response, and Maple I said, okay, I'll see, I'll see what I can do. So I go online. It's so early, I don't want to call. I don't feel like talking on the phone. I just order on the little app. They don't have strawberry, they don't have pink.

The only thing that is close enough to that is cherry. I'm like, no one really wants a cherry donut, so it can't be that. And then at that point I was a little flustered. So I was like, I'm just gonna order one of everything else. And apparently Maple wasn't on the one of everything else, and JJ was disappointed. But I got thirteen donuts or fourteen donuts, I were many donuts. I got six of them were for the

strength coach perfectly ordered, and then for JJ's they weren't there. Unfortunately. However, I think as a Cardinals player and a Cardinals fan, everyone should be on my side because I'm looking out for the best. JJ does not need donuts. He was looking a little chubby on that Thursday, and I said, hey, do you want to donuts? I know you really don't need him. I'm not gonna get your donuts. Has it

been pretty cool too? You didn't get a chance to play together a lot because of his injury, but hasn't been cool to be around him. Both your wives are pregnant at the same time. I don't know conception was the same time. No, they'll do a little after us. But it has been good. We only played one game together unfortunately, my first game, but we've trained together all off seasons, essentially been the two of us here in Arizona in the off season. There's no need to leave

this building, so both of us would train here. It's been good to get to know you know. Oftentimes, when I was in Philly or an off season, I wouldn't have someone that was willing to do what I would do, not to make myself sound like I was doing something crazy, but just the demands, I'd be there for a long time or trained for a long time. And JJ's the guy that is in there just as long as I am. We're doing the same trainings each and every day, and

so it's been fun to get to know him. Our wives are actually on like the youth national team since they were seventeen or something like that together, so they've known each other forever. But it's been good to get to know him. And by asking these two questions, now you have passed JJ's time. I think that he spent on this podcast, so you can actually perfect I know that that'll be a big point of conversation between the

two of you. The hair, it's the second time I think in your career you showed up with blonde hair. You did it in Philly once. Is here to stay or is this I don't know. It's kind of an off season thing. Sometimes you just give board. Um, I feel like you're gonna change it up. Julie likes it, so every now and then I'll do it. Hey, yeah, I don't know. I'm sticking to do the same thing with my hair. I don't know. I think I don't know.

I usually have brows. I usually have the beard in season and then because again on TV they this that way, they don't stare at your head. They see the beard. But in the off season, you know you're not on, so it doesn't at all. Right, tell me about the years Family Foundation, Tell me about all the charity work that you're doing. Yeah, So years ago I went to Haiti with Carson Wentz. We stayed at a place called Mission of Hope, which was a mission backed by Faith.

And at the time when I first got into the NFL, having a charity was always on my heart. I didn't exactly know what I wanted to do, what Julie and I wanted to do. And so I'll go down to Haiti see all the amazing work they're doing, and then I come home and I'm like, Julia, I don't know what we're gonna do, but having a charity back to buy our faith and the hope in Jesus is what we want to do. And so we started it in twenty eighteen and we for a long time or a

grant making organization in Philly. People would apply for money for their charities, for their small nonprofits and through the money that we were able to raise and through kind of charity events, whether it be at the Link we did one, whether it be at a golf tournament in the Bay Area. We would use the as funds and kind of just be a grant making an organization. And then when COVID hit, everything kind of changed with the

demands in Philly. Schools were shut down for a long long time, the mask mandates were there for a long time, and these kids. The homicide rates in Philly were skyrocket and kids were getting killed every other day. It was just terrible. Your heart would break, and it got to the point that we said we need to do something, and so Julie and my mom, we were in season.

They started just having a football program. We actually partnered with an organization called Timoteo, which is a faith based kind of flag football ministry outreach program, and so we would kind of host after school football practice for kids twice a week Tuesday Thursday. We would bring food and we would start to reach out and be like, hey,

what do you guys want? What are your goals. It ended up culminating in a football camp with the Watter Camp kind of organization where we had I think thirty colleges come out and kind of like a mock combine because there wasn't any football being played that fall. So it was like, how can we replicate that? How can

we still give kids opportunities? And I don't know the final number of who got scholarships or who got the opportunity to continue from that, but that is leading us to we are starting this thing called the House of Hope, which is in Kensington and Philadelphia. It was a million dollar raise for this house and it's gonna be a safe place Wi Fi cafe for these kids to go after school. It's going to be a church on Sundays,

and then it's gonna have tutoring. It's gonna have hopefully financial literacy for the communities there, and it's just something to help these kids have a place to go out after school because when we were growing up, sports was obviously paramount for us. My mom and we had it. We played every sport in high school. I played football,

basketball in high school. I did track in the spring, and then when that was my freshman year, and then after that kind of more seven on seven stuff, But that was always a thing that from three to seven, three to six I was always doing something. My mom wanted me always doing something, so I'll stay out of trouble. And we want to give these kids the same opportunities.

If they don't play sports, whatever they're doing to hey, we'll go to this place and hang out, stay out of trouble, and just get some guidance in your life. And so that we actually I think construction started officially last week. Awesome, so we're really proud of that. And then we're also now that we're hearing in Arizona. Obviously we want to do something big here. I don't know what it's going to be. Last year we did the meals, so I think it was for every touchdown the offense scored.

I think we donated five thousand meals to some of the local food banks. So we don't know exactly. And Philly, we were there for a long time, so we understood the needs of the community. Here we're still trying to learn exactly what the needs of this community are. It's a much different demographic, it's a much different landscape. Just Philly was so small of a city. Phoenix is obviously much bigger city in terms of mass mileage. So we

would love to talk to people. I would love to talk to people about how we can make a difference here because it is important to Julie and I to continue our Earth's Family Foundation out here. I think just the fact that you want to be involved is great, and that you want to make a difference and you want your faith to be on display because you know, as a Christian, people are watching you. They want to hear,

they want to see. They don't want to just hear, they want to see your works and not just hear what you have to say and hear you talk about it. So the fact you want to get involved and the fact you're already doing stuff here is pretty uh pretty cool. Man. So thanks for your time, appreciate your sharing everything about your family situation. Congratulations again man, and look forward to seeing you this fall. Awesome, Thank you appreciate it. You can just tell listening to Zach that he's a very

thoughtful guy. Great hearing about his heart for the community, the Earth's Family Foundation, all the great things that he and his wife Julie are doing in Philadelphia, some of the things they started to do here in Arizona and want to continue here in Arizona. We talked about the blonde hair. Is it here to stay or is it just a passing fad, something to do in the summer.

We got into the donut gate a little bit, his rivalry with the donuts with J. J. Watt, But more importantly, Zach had some great thoughts on the offense and what his role might look like and how it could change a little bit, maybe in the first six weeks of the season for twenty twenty two without DeAndre Hopkins, but great to catch up with Zach. Look forward to hearing from him and hopefully he has a great season in twenty twenty two. Was a very reliable pass catcher for

the Cardinals after coming over in a trade midseason. We are presented by bet MGM, the official sports betting partner of the Arizona Cardinals, and by Hila River Hotels and Casinos. You can follow us on Twitter at pash Pot. Thanks again to Zach Ertz. I'm Dave Pash. Thanks for listening to the Dave Pash Podcast and n