Speaker 1: Hey everybody, and welcome to another edition of the Dave
Speaker 1: Pash Podcast. I'm your host Arizona Cardinals and ESPN broadcaster
Speaker 1: Dave Pash. Our guest this week is Cardinals tight end
Speaker 1: Zach Ertz. Zach and his wife Julie recently announced that
Speaker 1: they are bringing a baby boy into this world. We're
Speaker 1: going to talk about fatherhood with Zach, what he expects
Speaker 1: that to be like, and how that might impact him
Speaker 1: as a football player. We'll also talk about donut Gate,
Speaker 1: a current controversy in the locker room with both zach
Speaker 1: Ertz and J. J. Watt. Zach's new contract with the
Speaker 1: team were some of the reasons he decided to stay
Speaker 1: here in Arizona with the Cardinals. His thoughts on the
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two season. What do you expects from Kyler Murray?
Speaker 1: What the offense might look like without DeAndre Hopkins the
Speaker 1: first six weeks of the season. Kyler is the most
Speaker 1: talented player I've ever been around, player player period. There
Speaker 1: is no doubt. There's nothing he cannot do on a
Speaker 1: football gold Trey McBride, the rookie tight end out of
Speaker 1: Colorado State. How the mentoring is going of mcfride, and
Speaker 1: trying to get him ready to help Ertz and company
Speaker 1: in the fall. We are presented by betmgm, the official
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Speaker 1: Gambling problem called one eight hundred. Next step. Now here's
Speaker 1: our guest for this week's edition of the Dave Pash Podcast,
Speaker 1: Cardinals tight End, Zach Ertz. Zach, appreciate you doing this.
Speaker 1: Let's start with the news of the last month, and
Speaker 1: that's you're going to be a dad. Yeah. How's that feel? Man? Oh,
Speaker 1: it's amazing. We're so excited. Julie and I are just
Speaker 1: ecstatic to be parents. Obviously, it's a different season of life,
Speaker 1: something that we've never done before, this being our first one,
Speaker 1: so we're extremely excited. Getting everything set up, getting the
Speaker 1: nursery set up, a lot of things that we're probably
Speaker 1: not prepared for, but I feel like we got a
Speaker 1: lot of great people to lean on and can't wait
Speaker 1: for them to come. Do we know the gender? It
Speaker 1: is a boy? Congratulations? Man, congratulations, I've got one myself.
Speaker 1: He's now sixteen, trying to figure out how to drive.
Speaker 1: Oh man, Yeah. I don't look forward to to him
Speaker 1: being on the streets or me being on the streets
Speaker 1: in a different car. That's one thing. If you're sitting
Speaker 1: next to him, it's another few or another car. How
Speaker 1: do you think being a dad will impact you as
Speaker 1: a football player. I think it will put a lot
Speaker 1: of things in perspective. I mean I'm excited about that.
Speaker 1: You know, no matter how the day goes here at work,
Speaker 1: I know I'm coming home to not only my wife
Speaker 1: Julie loving me, but there will be a son there
Speaker 1: that will just view me as his hero per se
Speaker 1: And no matter how my day is going, the moment
Speaker 1: I walk in the door, all those problems will probably
Speaker 1: dissipate when I see them. But the way I approached
Speaker 1: the game, the way I go about my business, I
Speaker 1: don't think we'll change. I can't answer that definitively, but
Speaker 1: as of now, I'm just excited. I know it's a
Speaker 1: big responsibility to be a dad, something that I definitely
Speaker 1: don't take lightly. So I'll take the same attitude I
Speaker 1: have playing football to be the best dad I can be.
Speaker 1: It's probably more of a change for your wife because
Speaker 1: she's a professional athlete as well. Do you think that
Speaker 1: she'll continue to be a professional athlete once you get
Speaker 1: through this or is it, you know what, the first
Speaker 1: time going through this? We have no idea. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean I think we're I think that's the approach. I'm
Speaker 1: never going I told people all the time, I'm never
Speaker 1: going to be the one to tell Julie, hey, I
Speaker 1: think it's time for you to be done. I mean
Speaker 1: that is I'll die on the hill that Julie was
Speaker 1: the best player in the world when she was playing
Speaker 1: in her prime. Not only as a husband but as
Speaker 1: a football fan, that was how I viewed it. And
Speaker 1: so if she wants to come back and play, great,
Speaker 1: If she doesn't, great as well, we'll adjust either way.
Speaker 1: What I have loved over the past nine months after
Speaker 1: since the Olympics in August, she's been home every day
Speaker 1: and this is the longest time we've been together consistently
Speaker 1: since we started dating. We started dating in college, she
Speaker 1: went to Santa Clara. I went to Stanford, so we
Speaker 1: did a little long distance then and then I got
Speaker 1: drafted and it was in Philadelphia, and she was a
Speaker 1: senior in college, and then after that she was in Chicago.
Speaker 1: I was in Philly. So it was always months or
Speaker 1: weeks at a time. But this has been a great,
Speaker 1: a really good season for us to kind of just
Speaker 1: really hang out each and every day, love each other
Speaker 1: each and every day, and it's been really fun. She's
Speaker 1: from here, right and family is still here as well. Yep.
Speaker 1: So was that a big factor for you guys and
Speaker 1: making a decision about staying here with the Cardinals? It was.
Speaker 1: The whole process was a process. I guess there were
Speaker 1: multiple factors. Julie has said all along, even a few
Speaker 1: years ago when we were knew our time was running
Speaker 1: out in Philly, she was like, I don't care where
Speaker 1: we play, just go where you want to go and
Speaker 1: I'll be there regardless. And so that takes a lot
Speaker 1: of pressure off of me as someone that is leading
Speaker 1: the family to kind of make a football decision. Obviously,
Speaker 1: her input and her well being is paramount to me,
Speaker 1: but the fact that we have a little one on
Speaker 1: the way and all the doctors. We've already seen her here.
Speaker 1: Her family's here, and my mom will be here. My
Speaker 1: mom was gonna be wherever I was going to go play,
Speaker 1: so we'll always have help near. But we love Arizona.
Speaker 1: Julie loves Arizona. It's hard not to love Arizona, especially
Speaker 1: as an athlete, because the weather is always good. Even
Speaker 1: when it's one hundred degrees. The body still feels amazing
Speaker 1: running around out there. It's not like Philadelphia, where it
Speaker 1: was freezing and it took half of practice just to
Speaker 1: get warmed up. But it was a great decision. We
Speaker 1: are very blessed to be here and I'm excited about
Speaker 1: the future. It's a great place, man. This is my
Speaker 1: twenty first year, will be my twenty first season doing
Speaker 1: the Cardinals games. Moved here in two thousand and two,
Speaker 1: had bounced around to different cities, and as soon as
Speaker 1: we got here, it's it's hard not to love. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And the team's been great about you know, allow me
Speaker 1: to do all the stuff with ESPN and still be
Speaker 1: able to have my home base here and still have
Speaker 1: a team, a team to root for. So not surprised
Speaker 1: to hear that you love it here, because I haven't
Speaker 1: met many people that come here that want to leave. Yeah,
Speaker 1: no doubt about it. You said something interesting about you
Speaker 1: realized that your time in Philly was coming to an end.
Speaker 1: And I'm curious why that happened, Like, why did you
Speaker 1: think it was coming to an end? Was it just
Speaker 1: a contractual thing where you wanted something financially that you
Speaker 1: didn't think you were going to get, or you didn't
Speaker 1: feel like you were fitting into what they were trying
Speaker 1: to do anymore. I think a little bit of both. Obviously,
Speaker 1: the contract thing was pretty public, so everyone knew what
Speaker 1: was going on there. And also I think they were
Speaker 1: kind of resetting. Obviously they moved on from Carston, they
Speaker 1: moved on from Doug and when everyone was kind of
Speaker 1: on that way out, I've kind of figured it. There
Speaker 1: was kind of a shifting of the guard per se.
Speaker 1: They were going to go in a different direction. And
Speaker 1: I told them that all along when we were going
Speaker 1: through the contract stuff. They had a young tight end
Speaker 1: at the time, it was pretty good player, and I
Speaker 1: just said, hey, listen, I don't care what the decision is.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to be upset either way, but just
Speaker 1: please make one like don't hang me out to dry
Speaker 1: or whatever, and we were should have to land in
Speaker 1: Arizona midway through the year. I wish it happened a
Speaker 1: little earlier, but I couldn't control that, and understand it's
Speaker 1: part of the business. I have no ill feelings for
Speaker 1: anyone in that building. I still talk to a lot
Speaker 1: of people in the building, a lot of long time
Speaker 1: teammates that I played a lot of football with. I'll
Speaker 1: still still talk to them. But yeah, it's one of
Speaker 1: those things. Cardinals play Philly this year, but the game's here,
Speaker 1: so there's a chance at some point you get to
Speaker 1: go back to Philadelphia and get a standing ovation. I
Speaker 1: was there. I did a couple of sixer games in
Speaker 1: the playoffs, and I did a game in the regular
Speaker 1: season in Philly, and it was JJ Reddick's first game
Speaker 1: as an analyst. And JJ was there for one year,
Speaker 1: but he got an incredible ovation from the crowd. Was
Speaker 1: up on the JumboTron. I mean, there were autograph seekers
Speaker 1: throughout the night for JJ, who again was there for
Speaker 1: a year. You won a super Bowl in Philadelphia, First
Speaker 1: of all, what was it like, not just winning a
Speaker 1: super Bowl but doing in a city like Philadelphia, And
Speaker 1: what do you think it will be like to go
Speaker 1: back there one day as a visiting player. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: would be special. Obviously, I grew up so much there.
Speaker 1: I pretty much spent a third of my life in Philadelphia.
Speaker 1: I considered at home for so long. I don't know
Speaker 1: if we'll end up there or not when I'm done playing,
Speaker 1: but being there winning the super Bowl, the city's first
Speaker 1: super Bowl in a city that lives in breezes of
Speaker 1: the Eagles, was special. The parade was an experience that
Speaker 1: I'll never forget, and that experience is really driving me now.
Speaker 1: Just experiencing that feeling of winning a Super Bowl hoisting
Speaker 1: the Lombardi is really motivating me each and every day
Speaker 1: because I would need. I feel like I need to
Speaker 1: feel that feeling again. And so that attitude and that
Speaker 1: success we had was driving me today to hopefully repeat
Speaker 1: that here in Arizona. You've played for a wide variety
Speaker 1: of personalities as head coaches. Obviously Hardball you had David
Speaker 1: Shaw a little bit right as well, Chip. I love Chip,
Speaker 1: and I don't know what kind of relationship you had
Speaker 1: with Chip Kelly, but he's just a great guy, fun
Speaker 1: guy to be around and all the criticism that he
Speaker 1: took for doing what he did, I realized some of
Speaker 1: it you can't do in terms of just full go
Speaker 1: every single all acceleration, no breaks. I get it, you
Speaker 1: can't do that in the NFL. But a lot of
Speaker 1: what the scheme and some of the things he's doing,
Speaker 1: most everybody does now. I mean they've copied a lot
Speaker 1: of stuff that they said couldn't work in the NFL. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I've obviously played with an eclectic group. Coach
Speaker 1: Harbaugh was perfect for me when I was eighteen years
Speaker 1: old coming out of high school, didn't know any better.
Speaker 1: Dude just mentally manipulated me to be the best I
Speaker 1: could and I appreciate him to this day. Coach was
Speaker 1: a phenomenal coach. We had, Andrew Luck myself. It's just
Speaker 1: so much talent, David de Castro, Doug Baldwin, all these guys.
Speaker 1: Our time at Stanford was so far and we were
Speaker 1: so good, and then getting drafted by Chip was a
Speaker 1: really good thing for not only me, but I think
Speaker 1: a lot of other guys because he was obviously he
Speaker 1: had his ways on the and you can debate them
Speaker 1: either which way. But the stuff that he taught us
Speaker 1: off the field in terms of prioritizing your body, prioritizing
Speaker 1: nutrition stuff and all that aspect. I would say Chip
Speaker 1: taught us a lot and the intensity at practice that
Speaker 1: he demanded, and a lot of guys didn't last in
Speaker 1: Philly or were shipped out because of that. I would
Speaker 1: say the guys that stayed and really embraced that really
Speaker 1: set the culture in that building for a long time,
Speaker 1: and we practiced our butts off, whether it was with Chip,
Speaker 1: whether it was with Doug, whether it was Nick this
Speaker 1: past year, for the limited time I was there, the
Speaker 1: intensity the Vets have brought in practice really shaped the
Speaker 1: culture of that building. And I don't think Chip gets
Speaker 1: enough credit for that in the standards he set in
Speaker 1: that regard. So you listed all those guys, and I'm curious,
Speaker 1: in your limited experience so far with Cliff, where does
Speaker 1: Cliff fit in with those guys in terms of personality, style, likability.
Speaker 1: Cliffs one of the easiest guys to get along with.
Speaker 1: I haven't met many people that say they can't get
Speaker 1: along with Cliff Kingsbury. Yeah, I think he's a mold
Speaker 1: of all of them. You know that this offense is
Speaker 1: similar to Chip, I would say Cliff's approach is more
Speaker 1: like Doug where it's a lot of veteran leadership. He
Speaker 1: puts a lot of it on the veterans to kind
Speaker 1: of hold the standards and create the standards. But Cliff
Speaker 1: grinds like he is here in this building all the time,
Speaker 1: like four am during the season, doing everything he can
Speaker 1: to get his guys the ball, put us in positions
Speaker 1: to be successful. And so in my would I have
Speaker 1: twelve weeks last year with him, it was awesome. And
Speaker 1: that's what I told my agent this offseason. I said, Hey,
Speaker 1: I want to come back to Arizona. I love playing
Speaker 1: for this guy. I love the culture in the building,
Speaker 1: and when they resigned him, it was a big factor
Speaker 1: and me wanting to come back. You talk about Cliff
Speaker 1: empowering the veterans to take control of the locker room.
Speaker 1: How did you handle that because you're coming in there
Speaker 1: are already a lot of veterans here and the team
Speaker 1: was winning at the time, So how did you assert
Speaker 1: yourself in that leadership role in the middle of a
Speaker 1: season when you get traded here? Yeah, I mean you
Speaker 1: don't do a lot, you know, especially early on, it
Speaker 1: was learned the playbook, figure out the culture, introduce yourself
Speaker 1: to the guys um and guys that play in the
Speaker 1: NFL a long time, whether it be seven, eight, nine,
Speaker 1: ten years, you they're there for they've played for a reason.
Speaker 1: They understand what it takes to be to have success,
Speaker 1: They understand what it takes to win on Sundays, to
Speaker 1: take care of your bodies, and so there's not much
Speaker 1: variation in terms of approach in leadership qualities per se
Speaker 1: among the guys that have been doing it for a
Speaker 1: long time. But then once you get more comfortable, and
Speaker 1: once I got more comfortable, and there are some things
Speaker 1: that we were doing as a team that I felt
Speaker 1: where they're limiting us. So sometimes you just got to
Speaker 1: stand up and address something like whether it be penalties,
Speaker 1: whether it be pre snap stuff, whether it be discipline,
Speaker 1: some of the stuff. I was one of the few
Speaker 1: guys that had won a Super Bowl, and so with that,
Speaker 1: I don't want to say credential, it is it almost Yeah,
Speaker 1: with that credibility, I would say that's a better word.
Speaker 1: You can kind of say things that maybe a guy
Speaker 1: that had been here for only ten weeks wouldn't have
Speaker 1: necessarily been able to say, and so that in those
Speaker 1: moments when you know when things are kind of hitting
Speaker 1: the fan, and then it was my turn to kind
Speaker 1: of take a step up. JJ was gone, So then
Speaker 1: it was kind of like, well, I better say something
Speaker 1: because I don't want this to end the wrong way.
Speaker 1: With that said, as you look back at the second
Speaker 1: half of last season, what were some of the pitfalls
Speaker 1: that you think you guys can avoid this year because
Speaker 1: you've now been through that and you've had to be
Speaker 1: in a situation where you've had to speak up or
Speaker 1: hold somebody accountable. Yeah, I mean I think well, first
Speaker 1: of all, if I had the answer to why this
Speaker 1: team has not been successful in the second half of
Speaker 1: the season in the past couple of years, I would
Speaker 1: have already changed it. But looking back at last year,
Speaker 1: because that's the only experience I've had, it just really
Speaker 1: came down to execution. And I know that's so cliche
Speaker 1: or so easy to say, but we were just such
Speaker 1: a better team on first and second down earlier in
Speaker 1: the season, then we were at the end of the season,
Speaker 1: and then the season we're freaking facing second and fifteens,
Speaker 1: third and twelves and it's just so hard as an
Speaker 1: NFL team to face that consistently and put points on
Speaker 1: the board, and then one thing falls into another. We
Speaker 1: play good on offense and then the defense plays poorly,
Speaker 1: or the defense plays poorly and we play great. It's
Speaker 1: just one of those things that we couldn't figure it
Speaker 1: all out at the end of the year, and hopefully
Speaker 1: that adversity will help shift us where you just can't
Speaker 1: let things snowball in the NFL. Momentum is real in
Speaker 1: this league, and if you feel like, hey, we're the
Speaker 1: best team, no one can mess with us, then yeah,
Speaker 1: you're gonna play it like that on Sundays. But if
Speaker 1: you take it hit in the mouth and this happens one, two,
Speaker 1: three Sundays in rows, like, man, we got to find
Speaker 1: a way and we just can't let let let that
Speaker 1: mentality of hey, we can't let that snowball effect, especially
Speaker 1: the negative aspect right take place. You also lost a
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame player in DeAndre Hopkins. I mean, things change,
Speaker 1: and in the middle of a season. I have to
Speaker 1: think it's much harder to adjust when you got other
Speaker 1: guys injured and things are coming at you so fast.
Speaker 1: You're going from one game to the next as opposed
Speaker 1: to now where you know Hop is not going to
Speaker 1: be there. So for Cliff and for you guys, I
Speaker 1: have to think it's a little bit easier to kind
Speaker 1: of plan Okay, what are these first six games going
Speaker 1: to be? Like, what's our offense gonna be? Like? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, the Hop was obviously a big reason why
Speaker 1: I was excited to come out here. I think we
Speaker 1: only ended up playing like two and a half games together.
Speaker 1: But I've never played with a guy like Kim where
Speaker 1: that in Philly. I was always a guy getting double teams.
Speaker 1: I was the guy that was getting smacked the moment
Speaker 1: he caught the ball. I was excited for all the
Speaker 1: attention to be on the Hop, and then I get
Speaker 1: out here and then I'm getting double team at the
Speaker 1: end of the year again, I'm like, oh man, here
Speaker 1: we go again. But you can never replace a guy
Speaker 1: like DeAndre. Let's just throw that out there. You can scheme,
Speaker 1: you can do whatever you want. You're never just gonna
Speaker 1: respect the moment he crosses those lines on Sunday. There's
Speaker 1: no woman. There's maybe three other guys on the face
Speaker 1: of the earth that demand that same attention that the
Speaker 1: Hop brings to the team. We have to find ways
Speaker 1: to put guys in position to not replace, but kind
Speaker 1: of replicate some of his production. I mean, maybe I
Speaker 1: go play some ex receiver. I did it a lot
Speaker 1: in Philly. Maybe some of the other guys. Ron Dale
Speaker 1: goes outside a little bit more. But I think when
Speaker 1: you have additional time to do it, it it obviously helps.
Speaker 1: And people don't forget Kyler got here, missed three games
Speaker 1: in the middle of the year, so I think the
Speaker 1: rhythm of everything kind of just faltered in the middle
Speaker 1: of the season and we just can't get out of it.
Speaker 1: Kyler obviously is incredibly talented. You've played with a lot
Speaker 1: of good quarterbacks, whether it was at Stanford or in Philadelphia,
Speaker 1: and you know, whether it was somebody that was drafted
Speaker 1: high or Nick Foles, it wasn't drafted high. But he's
Speaker 1: a champion. How is Kyler different from quarterbacks you've played
Speaker 1: with previously, and how is he similar? Kyler is the
Speaker 1: most talented player I've ever been around, player player period.
Speaker 1: There is no doubt. There's nothing he cannot do on
Speaker 1: a football field. He can be like Lamar Jackson and
Speaker 1: take off and run for one hundred plus yards in
Speaker 1: a game. Or in my opinion, you can send in
Speaker 1: the pocket and not even worry about his legs and
Speaker 1: just dinking dunk all the way down the field. He's super,
Speaker 1: super accurate, and there's just nothing he can do. I
Speaker 1: don't know that. I can't really explain it. That he
Speaker 1: can throw the ball sixty yards down the field, he
Speaker 1: can make every throw you want him to throw, and
Speaker 1: the guy is super super competitive. You know. I didn't
Speaker 1: when I was in Philly, we didn't see a lot
Speaker 1: of the Arizona games. I would just see the highlights
Speaker 1: and you see this guy running around making all these
Speaker 1: ridiculous plays against Tennessee Minnesota. And I get out here
Speaker 1: and this guy in him an ideal situation. He doesn't
Speaker 1: leave the pocket, and I think that for me as
Speaker 1: a pass catcher, I love playing with a quarterback like
Speaker 1: that because he just wants to play on time, playing rhythm,
Speaker 1: get the ball out of his hands, get the ball
Speaker 1: to his guys, and let us make the play. So
Speaker 1: he doesn't, but he knows that he has the luxury
Speaker 1: if hey, we need to play or the plays breaking down,
Speaker 1: he can take off. And so for me, Kyler is
Speaker 1: the most talented quarterback player I've probably been around. Andrew
Speaker 1: Luck is probably the best quarterback I've been around, and
Speaker 1: Kyler has that ability. Obviously, I played with Andrew in college,
Speaker 1: so I was kind of lucky to bless to experience
Speaker 1: that at such a young age. Andrew was probably the
Speaker 1: best leader I've been around, just he was always one
Speaker 1: of the guys. He was always pushing people. He loved football,
Speaker 1: super approachable. Carson is one of my best friends to
Speaker 1: this day. Another guy that's huge, can make all the
Speaker 1: throws super competitive, and I think the best ones I've
Speaker 1: been around kind of have this competition factor that, hey,
Speaker 1: no matter what's going on, they feel like they can
Speaker 1: make a play. And I know Kyler does that in
Speaker 1: terms of continuing to grow as a leader, which is
Speaker 1: something that everybody's talked about with Kyler. And you talked
Speaker 1: about the leadership of Andrew Luck, and I think it
Speaker 1: was clear whether he was at Stanford or in the NFL.
Speaker 1: I mean you could just see it the way he
Speaker 1: interacted with his teammates, the way he carried himself on
Speaker 1: the field. He was the guy everybody looked to him,
Speaker 1: and everybody looks to Kyler because he's the most talented
Speaker 1: guy on the field. But where does he need to grow.
Speaker 1: When are you seeing some of that growth as a leader,
Speaker 1: taking the next step in terms of being the guy
Speaker 1: that everybody looks to and believes in that he can
Speaker 1: go out there and take you to the next level. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think everyone wants to finished products. Everyone wants instant success.
Speaker 1: Everyone wants instant I would say gratification today. And people
Speaker 1: forget how young Kyler is. He's twenty fourth, twenty five
Speaker 1: years old. People want this guy that's Tom Brady leading
Speaker 1: everyone onto the field. But Kyler's better now than he
Speaker 1: was when I got here in October, and he's going
Speaker 1: to continue to grow in that regard. I was. I
Speaker 1: never talked when I was young in the NFL. I
Speaker 1: would just do my thing, go to work, work my
Speaker 1: butt off. I was like, I'm just gonna lead by
Speaker 1: example and if people want to join me, great, if
Speaker 1: they don't. Whatever. Now I'm in year ten and I
Speaker 1: kind of have more of a vocal role per se.
Speaker 1: And Kyler's gonna find whatever works best for him in
Speaker 1: this football team, and it's not going to be something
Speaker 1: that's the prototypical way Kyler. Kids talk behind doors to
Speaker 1: one on one We've talked many times about football. How
Speaker 1: do you want certain things? How do you want certain
Speaker 1: things that you need to be better at this? Kyler?
Speaker 1: What do you think about me doing it this way
Speaker 1: or whatnot. So just because he's not out there leading
Speaker 1: in the typical fashion doesn't mean he's not a leader
Speaker 1: of this football team. And I think that next step
Speaker 1: for him is kind of taking more of that vocal role.
Speaker 1: And I think it will happen. It's just going to happen,
Speaker 1: maybe this year, maybe in a couple of years. But
Speaker 1: he's definitely Everyone wants to point his lack of leadership
Speaker 1: or whatever it is. I just don't think that's true.
Speaker 1: And I don't even know that it's lack of leadership.
Speaker 1: I think it's just maturity. It's growing, it's realizing. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think about Larry Fitzgerald when he got here and
Speaker 1: how it took Larry some time. Larry was twenty years
Speaker 1: old when he came to the NFL. It took Larry
Speaker 1: some time to understand the demands of being a superstar
Speaker 1: player and what the media expects, what the public expects,
Speaker 1: I mean, what your teammates expect. There's a lot that
Speaker 1: goes into that we saw Kobe Bryant over the years grow.
Speaker 1: People tell stories that Michael Jorge and would he come
Speaker 1: in for a finals game. The first thing you do
Speaker 1: would go sit down with TV, we go write in
Speaker 1: answer all the questions, get up, go on to the
Speaker 1: next thing. Because he understood there's all these peripheral things
Speaker 1: you've got to do as part of being a superstar player.
Speaker 1: I just think that's something Kyler's learning. He's always had
Speaker 1: the attention on him. But look at Oklahoma. You know
Speaker 1: they're trying to protect him. They're trying to make it
Speaker 1: easy on him. In the NFL, you can't do that
Speaker 1: because the demands are there. It's part of the collective
Speaker 1: bargaining agreement. You have to do those things. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean it's the access to players has probably never been easier,
Speaker 1: and the demands as a player probably never been harder.
Speaker 1: Just with social media, no matter where you go, everyone
Speaker 1: is has their phone out. People can record you doing whatever,
Speaker 1: and you're just always on and sometimes you just want
Speaker 1: to be off. Sometimes you just want to go somewhere
Speaker 1: and don't want to deal with anything. And and Philly,
Speaker 1: for me, it was heightened out here. It's not as
Speaker 1: bad as it was in Philly. But a guy like Kyler,
Speaker 1: he's on every TV each and every day, and so
Speaker 1: for him, he's gonna grow into it. He's gonna get
Speaker 1: more and more comfortable and more and more confident in that.
Speaker 1: And I mean, the sky's a limit for him. I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna throw that. You're right, Yeah, you're right. The
Speaker 1: kid is incredibly talented, and obviously all of us here
Speaker 1: I want to see him played his potential because if
Speaker 1: he does, they're gonna be some championships there. All right,
Speaker 1: a couple more, we'll get you out of here. Tell
Speaker 1: me about Trey McBride, which you think so far? Yeah,
Speaker 1: Trey is obviously very talented. He's got really really good hands,
Speaker 1: you know. I think when you watch him run around
Speaker 1: catch football, you can tell it's super supernatural for him
Speaker 1: to make plays with the football. Obviously, coming in young
Speaker 1: player from a smaller school, got a lot to work on.
Speaker 1: But I think he can be a guy that can
Speaker 1: help us this year, and I would expect him to
Speaker 1: find a role for sure. Obviously we got a lot
Speaker 1: of playmakers in this offense. So even if he has
Speaker 1: I think my rookie year I had about thirty six
Speaker 1: forty catches something like that, And so even if he
Speaker 1: has that, or even if he has less than that,
Speaker 1: he can still have a great impact act on this team.
Speaker 1: He's gonna have to find a role in the blocking
Speaker 1: game obviously, as being a tight end, you have to
Speaker 1: do that. And so I'm excited to see him in pads.
Speaker 1: It's so tough to tell right now. We're kind of
Speaker 1: playing grass basketball, sure, and then when the Pats come on,
Speaker 1: I would say, in training, can't you find more about
Speaker 1: especially tight ends and linemen, running backs and pass protection.
Speaker 1: But he's definitely a good athlete and got really good hands.
Speaker 1: I remember doing a game, an Oklahoma game at ESPN
Speaker 1: the year Kyler won the Heisman, and it was very
Speaker 1: clear that he and Hollywood had chemistry. There was they
Speaker 1: played a game in Iowa State. We did him. He
Speaker 1: was like week three and he had a a fifty
Speaker 1: sixty yard pass to Hollywood, got behind the defense and
Speaker 1: he just took the top off the defense and every
Speaker 1: the rest of the game they were just concerned about Hollywood.
Speaker 1: Is it pretty easy, even though, like you said, you're
Speaker 1: not doing a whole lot to see that there is
Speaker 1: some chemistry. I mean Kyler hasn't been here that often,
Speaker 1: but based on conversations with Kyler or conversations with Hollywood,
Speaker 1: if there's something that's already there intrinsically between the two, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think you can definitely tell they're very
Speaker 1: close friends. Yeah, they hang out a lot together. But
Speaker 1: on the field, Hollywood is a guy that is extremely
Speaker 1: extremely fast. I mean the first thing you see him
Speaker 1: doing his role in when he's out there at receiver,
Speaker 1: and I think it's a great addition for us because
Speaker 1: he's very different than the other receivers and tight ends
Speaker 1: we have on this team. He's a guy that the
Speaker 1: safeties have to back up. And you know, de Hop
Speaker 1: and I are guys that make a lot of contested catches.
Speaker 1: We play over the middle of the field, and so
Speaker 1: you need a guy that defenses are worried about. So
Speaker 1: if they're so keyed in in the middle of the
Speaker 1: field or DeAndre at the outside, you need a guy
Speaker 1: on the other side that can just run by someone
Speaker 1: for sixty yards. And it's hard to have fifteen sixteen
Speaker 1: twenty play drives in the NFL consistently, but with a
Speaker 1: guy like Hollywood Rondale, some of these guys that are
Speaker 1: so fast that can make a play that they make
Speaker 1: your offensive jobs easier, not only when they touch the ball,
Speaker 1: but just for the fact that defenses have to account
Speaker 1: for them. And so I'm excited to play with him.
Speaker 1: I don't think I've ever played with the receiver that
Speaker 1: fast since Deshaun the first time. The second time he
Speaker 1: didn't play a lot of football together, unfortunately, but the
Speaker 1: first time, my rookie year, he was unbelievable, and so
Speaker 1: hopefully it's kind of the same thing with him. I
Speaker 1: want to ask you about Hurts Family Foundation, some of
Speaker 1: your charity work, but a couple of those silly questions. First,
Speaker 1: donut Gate, how did it start? Where is donut Gate
Speaker 1: right now? With you and JJ Man. First of all,
Speaker 1: I'm the good guy here. It was five fifteen wake
Speaker 1: up or whatever I say. Hey, the night before I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go get the strength coach donuts, So it wasn't
Speaker 1: about JJ. First of all, does Buddy Morris eat donuts?
Speaker 1: I thought the guy eats steel. Bunny Morris is the goat.
Speaker 1: Let's just we're just gonna say that. I don't know
Speaker 1: what he eats, but he who loves these bosta donuts
Speaker 1: out here. So I was like, hey, buddy, you're doing
Speaker 1: a great job. You've been coming in for JJ, and
Speaker 1: I early, I'm gonna get you. Get buddy some donuts.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna surprise him with some donuts. JJ, I'm going
Speaker 1: to Bosas. Do you want any donuts? He said, yeah,
Speaker 1: that sounds awesome. I would love some donuts in the morning.
Speaker 1: Pink or strawberry. I don't even know what they're called,
Speaker 1: was his response, and Maple I said, okay, I'll see,
Speaker 1: I'll see what I can do. So I go online.
Speaker 1: It's so early, I don't want to call. I don't
Speaker 1: feel like talking on the phone. I just order on
Speaker 1: the little app. They don't have strawberry, they don't have pink.
Speaker 1: The only thing that is close enough to that is cherry.
Speaker 1: I'm like, no one really wants a cherry donut, so
Speaker 1: it can't be that. And then at that point I
Speaker 1: was a little flustered. So I was like, I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna order one of everything else. And apparently Maple wasn't
Speaker 1: on the one of everything else, and JJ was disappointed.
Speaker 1: But I got thirteen donuts or fourteen donuts, I were
Speaker 1: many donuts. I got six of them were for the
Speaker 1: strength coach perfectly ordered, and then for JJ's they weren't there. Unfortunately. However,
Speaker 1: I think as a Cardinals player and a Cardinals fan,
Speaker 1: everyone should be on my side because I'm looking out
Speaker 1: for the best. JJ does not need donuts. He was
Speaker 1: looking a little chubby on that Thursday, and I said, hey,
Speaker 1: do you want to donuts? I know you really don't
Speaker 1: need him. I'm not gonna get your donuts. Has it
Speaker 1: been pretty cool too? You didn't get a chance to
Speaker 1: play together a lot because of his injury, but hasn't
Speaker 1: been cool to be around him. Both your wives are
Speaker 1: pregnant at the same time. I don't know conception was
Speaker 1: the same time. No, they'll do a little after us.
Speaker 1: But it has been good. We only played one game
Speaker 1: together unfortunately, my first game, but we've trained together all
Speaker 1: off seasons, essentially been the two of us here in
Speaker 1: Arizona in the off season. There's no need to leave
Speaker 1: this building, so both of us would train here. It's
Speaker 1: been good to get to know you know. Oftentimes, when
Speaker 1: I was in Philly or an off season, I wouldn't
Speaker 1: have someone that was willing to do what I would do,
Speaker 1: not to make myself sound like I was doing something crazy,
Speaker 1: but just the demands, I'd be there for a long
Speaker 1: time or trained for a long time. And JJ's the
Speaker 1: guy that is in there just as long as I am.
Speaker 1: We're doing the same trainings each and every day, and
Speaker 1: so it's been fun to get to know him. Our
Speaker 1: wives are actually on like the youth national team since
Speaker 1: they were seventeen or something like that together, so they've
Speaker 1: known each other forever. But it's been good to get
Speaker 1: to know him. And by asking these two questions, now
Speaker 1: you have passed JJ's time. I think that he spent
Speaker 1: on this podcast, so you can actually perfect I know
Speaker 1: that that'll be a big point of conversation between the
Speaker 1: two of you. The hair, it's the second time I
Speaker 1: think in your career you showed up with blonde hair.
Speaker 1: You did it in Philly once. Is here to stay
Speaker 1: or is this I don't know. It's kind of an
Speaker 1: off season thing. Sometimes you just give board. Um, I
Speaker 1: feel like you're gonna change it up. Julie likes it,
Speaker 1: so every now and then I'll do it. Hey, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm sticking to do the same thing
Speaker 1: with my hair. I don't know. I think I don't know.
Speaker 1: I usually have brows. I usually have the beard in
Speaker 1: season and then because again on TV they this that way,
Speaker 1: they don't stare at your head. They see the beard.
Speaker 1: But in the off season, you know you're not on,
Speaker 1: so it doesn't at all. Right, tell me about the
Speaker 1: years Family Foundation, Tell me about all the charity work
Speaker 1: that you're doing. Yeah, So years ago I went to
Speaker 1: Haiti with Carson Wentz. We stayed at a place called
Speaker 1: Mission of Hope, which was a mission backed by Faith.
Speaker 1: And at the time when I first got into the NFL,
Speaker 1: having a charity was always on my heart. I didn't
Speaker 1: exactly know what I wanted to do, what Julie and
Speaker 1: I wanted to do. And so I'll go down to
Speaker 1: Haiti see all the amazing work they're doing, and then
Speaker 1: I come home and I'm like, Julia, I don't know
Speaker 1: what we're gonna do, but having a charity back to
Speaker 1: buy our faith and the hope in Jesus is what
Speaker 1: we want to do. And so we started it in
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen and we for a long time or a
Speaker 1: grant making organization in Philly. People would apply for money
Speaker 1: for their charities, for their small nonprofits and through the
Speaker 1: money that we were able to raise and through kind
Speaker 1: of charity events, whether it be at the Link we
Speaker 1: did one, whether it be at a golf tournament in
Speaker 1: the Bay Area. We would use the as funds and
Speaker 1: kind of just be a grant making an organization. And
Speaker 1: then when COVID hit, everything kind of changed with the
Speaker 1: demands in Philly. Schools were shut down for a long
Speaker 1: long time, the mask mandates were there for a long time,
Speaker 1: and these kids. The homicide rates in Philly were skyrocket
Speaker 1: and kids were getting killed every other day. It was
Speaker 1: just terrible. Your heart would break, and it got to
Speaker 1: the point that we said we need to do something,
Speaker 1: and so Julie and my mom, we were in season.
Speaker 1: They started just having a football program. We actually partnered
Speaker 1: with an organization called Timoteo, which is a faith based
Speaker 1: kind of flag football ministry outreach program, and so we
Speaker 1: would kind of host after school football practice for kids
Speaker 1: twice a week Tuesday Thursday. We would bring food and
Speaker 1: we would start to reach out and be like, hey,
Speaker 1: what do you guys want? What are your goals. It
Speaker 1: ended up culminating in a football camp with the Watter
Speaker 1: Camp kind of organization where we had I think thirty
Speaker 1: colleges come out and kind of like a mock combine
Speaker 1: because there wasn't any football being played that fall. So
Speaker 1: it was like, how can we replicate that? How can
Speaker 1: we still give kids opportunities? And I don't know the
Speaker 1: final number of who got scholarships or who got the
Speaker 1: opportunity to continue from that, but that is leading us
Speaker 1: to we are starting this thing called the House of Hope,
Speaker 1: which is in Kensington and Philadelphia. It was a million
Speaker 1: dollar raise for this house and it's gonna be a
Speaker 1: safe place Wi Fi cafe for these kids to go
Speaker 1: after school. It's going to be a church on Sundays,
Speaker 1: and then it's gonna have tutoring. It's gonna have hopefully
Speaker 1: financial literacy for the communities there, and it's just something
Speaker 1: to help these kids have a place to go out
Speaker 1: after school because when we were growing up, sports was
Speaker 1: obviously paramount for us. My mom and we had it.
Speaker 1: We played every sport in high school. I played football,
Speaker 1: basketball in high school. I did track in the spring,
Speaker 1: and then when that was my freshman year, and then
Speaker 1: after that kind of more seven on seven stuff, But
Speaker 1: that was always a thing that from three to seven,
Speaker 1: three to six I was always doing something. My mom
Speaker 1: wanted me always doing something, so I'll stay out of trouble.
Speaker 1: And we want to give these kids the same opportunities.
Speaker 1: If they don't play sports, whatever they're doing to hey,
Speaker 1: we'll go to this place and hang out, stay out
Speaker 1: of trouble, and just get some guidance in your life.
Speaker 1: And so that we actually I think construction started officially
Speaker 1: last week. Awesome, so we're really proud of that. And
Speaker 1: then we're also now that we're hearing in Arizona. Obviously
Speaker 1: we want to do something big here. I don't know
Speaker 1: what it's going to be. Last year we did the meals,
Speaker 1: so I think it was for every touchdown the offense scored.
Speaker 1: I think we donated five thousand meals to some of
Speaker 1: the local food banks. So we don't know exactly. And Philly,
Speaker 1: we were there for a long time, so we understood
Speaker 1: the needs of the community. Here we're still trying to
Speaker 1: learn exactly what the needs of this community are. It's
Speaker 1: a much different demographic, it's a much different landscape. Just
Speaker 1: Philly was so small of a city. Phoenix is obviously
Speaker 1: much bigger city in terms of mass mileage. So we
Speaker 1: would love to talk to people. I would love to
Speaker 1: talk to people about how we can make a difference
Speaker 1: here because it is important to Julie and I to
Speaker 1: continue our Earth's Family Foundation out here. I think just
Speaker 1: the fact that you want to be involved is great,
Speaker 1: and that you want to make a difference and you
Speaker 1: want your faith to be on display because you know,
Speaker 1: as a Christian, people are watching you. They want to hear,
Speaker 1: they want to see. They don't want to just hear,
Speaker 1: they want to see your works and not just hear
Speaker 1: what you have to say and hear you talk about it.
Speaker 1: So the fact you want to get involved and the
Speaker 1: fact you're already doing stuff here is pretty uh pretty cool. Man.
Speaker 1: So thanks for your time, appreciate your sharing everything about
Speaker 1: your family situation. Congratulations again man, and look forward to
Speaker 1: seeing you this fall. Awesome, Thank you appreciate it. You
Speaker 1: can just tell listening to Zach that he's a very
Speaker 1: thoughtful guy. Great hearing about his heart for the community,
Speaker 1: the Earth's Family Foundation, all the great things that he
Speaker 1: and his wife Julie are doing in Philadelphia, some of
Speaker 1: the things they started to do here in Arizona and
Speaker 1: want to continue here in Arizona. We talked about the
Speaker 1: blonde hair. Is it here to stay or is it
Speaker 1: just a passing fad, something to do in the summer.
Speaker 1: We got into the donut gate a little bit, his
Speaker 1: rivalry with the donuts with J. J. Watt, But more importantly,
Speaker 1: Zach had some great thoughts on the offense and what
Speaker 1: his role might look like and how it could change
Speaker 1: a little bit, maybe in the first six weeks of
Speaker 1: the season for twenty twenty two without DeAndre Hopkins, but
Speaker 1: great to catch up with Zach. Look forward to hearing
Speaker 1: from him and hopefully he has a great season in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two. Was a very reliable pass catcher for
Speaker 1: the Cardinals after coming over in a trade midseason. We
Speaker 1: are presented by bet MGM, the official sports betting partner
Speaker 1: of the Arizona Cardinals, and by Hila River Hotels and Casinos.
Speaker 1: You can follow us on Twitter at pash Pot. Thanks
Speaker 1: again to Zach Ertz. I'm Dave Pash. Thanks for listening
Speaker 1: to the Dave Pash Podcast and n