Each week during the season, we’re going through the Eagles’ media guide to find an interesting nugget.
This week, I chatted with record-breaking tight end Zach Ertz about his biggest bucket-list item.
Side note: Ertz’s stats have become so crazy this year, this bit of his bio has actually been removed to create more space for his record-shattering season. But it’s still in the online media guide.
Me: In yours, it says your bucket-list item is to go skydiving.
Ertz: (chuckles)
Me: So is that still on the list for you?
ZE: I think it’s well down the list. I think skydiving, you have to be under a certain weight. So I think you have to be under 220 pounds and I’m nowhere near that. So I’d have to do it when I’m done playing.
NFL
Me: Well, that’s probably better for everyone.
ZE: So I probably wouldn’t do that. I don’t plan on stopping (playing football) anytime soon, so it’s probably going to be something deep down the list.
Me: Do you think it’s something you’ll eventually do?
ZE: That’s something probably, when I was younger, I wanted to do. I got a wife, hopefully kids some day, so I don’t know if that’s going to be up there.
Me: I guess the wife is one of the biggest hurdles. Would she be on board?
ZE: Uhhhh….
Me: Has she done it?
ZE: She has not done it. I don’t know, I’ve never broached the subject with her, so I don’t know.
Me: Do you know what about it was intriguing to you at the time?
ZE: I think it was jumping out of a plane. I think it’s pretty … scary. Adrenaline filled.
Me: I did it once.
ZE: What did you think of it?
Me: It was cool. It was terrifying the morning of.
ZE: Like going up there?
Me: Yeah, just thinking about it the whole time. It’s cool though. Are you, like, an adrenaline junkie with other stuff?
ZE: Nah.
Me: What’s, like, the most adrenaline filled thing — aside from playing football — you’ve done.
ZE: Uhhh. For some reason, I’m like pretty scared of sharks. So in Hawaii, we went down there and just free dived in the open ocean. That was pretty, uhh, I had some anxiety with that a little.
Me: I think that’s probably … what’s that moment like when you see one?
ZE: I didn’t see one. Luckily, I didn’t see one. I would have had a panic attack. I might have just froze and drowned.
Me: I did it in a cage with them and even that was terrifying.
ZE: The great whites?
Me: Yeah, it was cool, but it was one of those …
ZE: I don’t know if I could do that. I would be so scared.
Me: Yeah, it was a little wild. Alright, thanks, man.
ZE: Yup.
Note: A quick search of a local skydiving place says tandem skydivers can weigh up to 250 pounds (with clothes and shoes on). Ertz is listed at 250. I won’t tell him, though. I don’t want to be responsible for the Eagles’ best player jumping out of a plane.
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