Complaint Review: ERTZ FAMILY FOUNDATION

Ertz Family Values

As a youngster and a young adult, I collected autographs from my favorite baseball, music and television personalities. Some, like Brooks Robinson were my childhood heroes. I have a story about each one that I acquired. Very few ever declined to sign an item in person or respond to an item that I sent in the mail. I always included return postage envelopes to make their responding as convenient as possible.

My 14 year old daughter is not only going through the pitfalls of any child of divorce, but also being 14 years old, it’s a challenging time for any teenager as peer pressure and choices affiliated with her age present themselves all too often. My thoughts were to support her love of the game and to give her focus on persevering in a good direction by continuing to focus on sports. My daughter looks up to Julie Ertz of the United States Women’s Soccer Team.

Having what would seem like support from a successful professional athlete that she admires could help as she would have Julie Ertz’s simple extension of support by my daughter being able to give the autographed item a glance displayed in her room. That request seemed to be an insurmountable request to the Ertz family. While a projection on my part, it is my perception that the Ertz’s do the right thing when someone is watching and it’s documented by reported coverage through The Ertz Family Foundation. That is the opposite of integrity. Integrity is doing the right thing when no one is watching. As one can see, it’s not as though The Ertz’s aren’t aware of this simple request. Contrarily, they have deliberately avoided fulfilling Julie Ertz simply signing her name.

Facebook Messenger communication with Lisa Ertz:

5-14-20 “Hi Lisa! I sent Julie a priority mail package with 2-8x10s, a jersey, return postage, a money order for Ertz Family Foundation. My 14 year old daughter loves her and wears #8. The rest of her season was cancelled. The package arrived Saturday. Do you think Julie got it and might respond? I even asked (anonymous) if he could help get the message that it was there. I worry about my daughter. 14 years old is a difficult time and I would be pleased if she stays in soccer.

5-14-20 “Hi David, I’ll follow up with her.”

My response 5-14-20 “Thank you SO much!”

6-14-20 “Hi David, They don’t have the package is all I know.”

6-14-20 “Their focus right now is on their foundation and the work here for the inner city kids.”

6-14-20 LISA ERTZ THEN BLOCKED ME ON FACEBOOK MESSENGER

As I mentioned, I was also asking a mutual friend of the Ertz’s and mine if he would assist. Here is the dialogue:

From me, 5-8-20 “Would I be asking too much of you to mention to Zach's mom that it's coming?”

Response, 5-8-20 “I can send her an email, sure.”

From me, 5-8-20 “Thank you”

From me, 5-29-20 “I guess Julie tossed it. Money order was never cashed and it was delivered 20 days ago.”

Response, 5-29-20 “Tell me how I can help here? If I can, I will.”

The mutual friend reached out a second time. Lisa Ertz’s response was that her Facebook account was “messed up” and that she and I were “no longer Facebook friends”. The mutual friend provided my address again and that was the pretty much the end.

At first I thought that Lisa Ertz was not being honest. I was wrong. That changed after I contacted The Ertz Family Foundation on October 1, 2020 regarding my request five months prior. At 6 pm on October 1st, I received an email from Julie Ertz’s agent, Steve Caric from Caric Sports Management. Mr. Caric wrote:

“I am the agent for both Zach and Julie Ertz.” “I am happy to speak with you about this if you would like.”

I responded on 10-1-20: “Thank you for your email Steve.” “If you would like to speak on the phone, my number is ….”

I responded again on 10-9-20 “Steve, please call me at your convenience if you still would like to talk.

Steve Caric’s response that same day was: “After learning more about how you handled this situation, this is far from a priority for me.”

When I received that email response from Mr. Caric on October 9th, it became evident that this was not Lisa Ertz. This was Zach and/or Julie Ertz. You know the end zone praying, flag wearing, knee taking couple for injustice while Far East, under poverty paid, forced labor people that sew their Nike cleats? Yes, them. Zach’s mom was doing her best to accommodate my request for my daughter. All of a sudden she unfriends me on Facebook? It all started to make sense when Julie Ertz’s agent, Steve Caric stepped in with his October 9th accusatory response.

How I handled the situation? I sent them a donation made out to The Ertz Family Foundation. I offered to send another contribution in good faith. Because I sent a money order and did not keep the stub, that first donation is lost money. That’s not their fault, but I did not ever claim that it was. I only offered an additional donation in good faith, even while I have been laid off for 5 months due to the Covid-19 pandemic. That’s “how I handled the situation”.

In closing I feel that my overall consensus leads back to today’s society. Things aren’t what they once were and it’s important to some people to be recognized, or even praised when they do something good and indeed someone needs to be watching.