TEMPE, Ariz. -- For the majority of their 4½-year marriage, Zach and Julie Ertz didn't know what it was like to be a "normal married couple."
Their respective careers -- Zach a tight end with the Arizona Cardinals and Julie a defender for the U.S. women's national team and most recently the Chicago Red Stars -- often kept them apart. They'd have a month together here, a couple of weeks there and maybe a weekend in between. Despite being married, they were in, essentially, a long-distance relationship. They had to rely on their phones to stay connected, texting all day, sometimes FaceTiming six or seven times a day.