Zach Ertz said the one career regret he carries is showing up to Eagles training camp with blond hair. Julie Ertz liked the look, but he still called that stretch the one phase he wishes he could take back.
Jason Kelce and Zach Ertz
On New Heights, Ertz said the timing was already awkward. He had ankle surgery, missed OTAs, and expected to be dealt before the 2021 preseason, so the blond hair arrived as his future with the Eagles looked unsettled.
Jason Kelce leaned into it. Ertz recalled that Kelce told him he would dye his own hair if Ertz was still on the team for Week 1, and Ertz said he wanted something that would give him a reason to keep that look if he stayed put.
Mercedes-Benz Stadium blond hair
The bet lasted into Week 1. Ertz and Kelce ran out at Mercedes-Benz Stadium against the Atlanta Falcons with matching blond hair, turning a locker-room joke into a public moment that followed the roster uncertainty into the regular season.
That episode sat inside a larger Philadelphia stretch that Ertz measured in years, not weeks. He said he spent nine years with the Eagles, was selected in the second round of the 2013 draft, and could not play his whole career in Philadelphia.
He also tied the story to the group around him. Ertz said he played alongside Jason Kelce, Brandon Graham, Fletcher Cox, and Lane Johnson on a young Eagles foundation, and he added, “When you spend nine years somewhere, you’re going to always have a natural affinity for the place.”
Julie Ertz on the hair
Julie Ertz brought the story back to the smallest detail in it. “I don’t think Kylie [Kelce] liked your hair as much as I liked Zach’s hair,” she joked, and Zach Ertz answered, “That’s really all that matters, honestly.”
The blond hair is the kind of moment that only makes sense once the contract logic around it is clear. Ertz expected a trade before the 2021 preseason, but he was still there when training camp opened, and the joke about dye became part of the season’s first week instead of a goodbye note.
That is why the regret lands where it does. It was not about the color alone; it was about a stretch when his place on the roster looked temporary, then lasted long enough for the joke to reach Week 1 and for him to look back on it as the one career choice he would change.
