Who knew sunflower seeds were such a good icebreaker?
In a piece for The Players Tribune, Philadelphia Eagles tight end Zach Ertz and U.S. Women's National Team soccer defender Julie Ertz spoke about their respective championships and shared the story of how they first met at a Stanford baseball game. There were a lot of sunflower seeds involved.
Julie: ... I remember Zach was pretty shy. His big move was to offer me some of his sunflower seeds. It was a pretty good move, actually. For the rest of the game, I did most of the conversation legwork, and any time there was an awkward pause or something, he'd just offer me more seeds. I probably ate, like, 500 seeds that night.
Zach: Don't underestimate the romantic power of sunflower seeds.
Julie: Neither of us knew the other was an athlete at first. That just wasn't a huge part of our conversations. I was playing soccer for Santa Clara, and obviously Stanford is our huge rival, so anything Stanford-sports-related I was like, 'Yeah, no thanks.' Even when I found out he was on the Stanford football team, it took me a long time before I even saw him play in person. Fast forward to seven years later, and my husband is going to the Super Bowl. It was so overwhelming.
Zach proposed to Julie in 2016 at that very same location, and the couple got married the following year.
