Jonathan Owens ready to lock in and root for wife Simone Biles at Paris Olympics (2024)

LAKE FOREST, Ill. — Chicago Bears safety Jonathan Owens has worked his way from an undrafted player out of Division II to a seventh-year NFL veteran. He’s been cut five times. He’s played in two playoff games.

But nothing compares with the nerves he will feel in Paris, where he’ll be cheering on his wife, Simone Biles, at the Olympics.

“Twelve out of 10, and I’ll be stressed out,” he told The Athletic.

Owens’ travel schedule is well known by now. He leaves for Paris on Monday. He’ll be there for the team and all-around gymnastics competitions before returning to training camp next Saturday, Aug. 3.

Not many No. 3 NFL safeties see their travel itineraries make national news. Then again, only one No. 3 safety is married to the greatest gymnast of all time.

“I’m just blessed they gave me the opportunity, man, to see my wife out there,” he said. “This is amazing, getting to watch her, you know? Just excited that they were able to allow me to go.”

Over the next few weeks, Owens is getting acclimated to his new team, preparing for the 2024 season and being a supportive husband and the biggest Biles fan in the world.

Spotted at Guaranteed Rate Field 👀 https://t.co/Gd6eG8CyAM pic.twitter.com/VfRNvYkcau

— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) April 13, 2024

Last summer, before Owens’ first training camp with the Green Bay Packers, Biles noticed something as they watched some of his plays.

“You look kind of slow right there,” she told him. “Like you’re thinking too much. I’ve noticed it a few times.”

Biles suggested Owens talk to someone about it.

“It’s not going to be fixed tomorrow or the next day,” she said to him. “Day by day, it’ll help.”

Two summers earlier, at the Tokyo Olympics, Biles experienced the most highly publicized example of the mental challenges that face even the most elite athletes. Going through that with Biles, Owens learned something that has become integral to his NFL career.

“Always acting like you’re OK is never the solution,” he said. “Everyone is going through something. She’s made me go in and talk to the sports psychologist myself. I always was just like, ‘Man, I’m OK. I’m good. I’ll be all right.’

“I’m not going to say she made it OK, but she really popularized it for the sports world because she did it on such a big stage.”

Last season, Owens met with the Packers’ sports psychologist every Tuesday. When he missed a tackle in Week 11 against the Los Angeles Chargers, an error that led to a touchdown and social media vitriol, Owens had only a few days to bounce back. The Packers were headed to Detroit on Thanksgiving.

He had his best career game: 12 tackles, a tackle for loss and his first career touchdown when he returned a fumble 27 yards for the score.

That's a @jjowens_3 TD!#GBvsDET | #GoPackGo

📺: FOX pic.twitter.com/Cyu1YrykQj

— Green Bay Packers (@packers) November 23, 2023

“That added to the mental toughness that I built through that mental training I was doing,” he said. “And I credit that to her because, before that, I would have been super down on myself about that tackle. And you might lose your confidence tackling in the open field.”

When the Packers hosted the Bears in the season finale, Green Bay’s sports psychologist wanted to introduce Owens to a good friend of his, Carla Suber, the Bears’ team clinician.

Two months later, Owens signed with the Bears, saw Suber at Halas Hall and now talks to her regularly.

“Us as men, we’ve ‘gotta be tough,’ ‘got to deal with stuff,’ ‘you gonna go through s—,’” Owens said. “But at the end of the day, you’ve got to handle it. She really just made it OK for me to really be vulnerable in myself and open up and talk to people.”

Before Biles’ events, she and Owens lock eyes. He calls it a “calming” moment. They do their “little hand gestures.”

While Biles locks in, so does Owens. He knows her routine and her starting score value. He didn’t know much about gymnastics before he met her, and now he is looking for balance checks, calculating deductions and trying to guess her score.

“I can get pretty close to the tenths of what I assume her score is going to be based on how flawless her routine was,” he said. “It’s pretty funny. When I first started watching, I didn’t really understand. But now, I’m just a competitive person, so I need to know the scoring.”

When Biles is in the air, doing things no other human can do, Owens has one thing on his mind.

“Land,” he said. “Please land.”

Keeping score pic.twitter.com/zxeIBCkK23

— Fluff (@gymnasticsfluff) July 1, 2024

He’s seen the routines so often that he said he can get spoiled by it.

“I’ve seen her do it flawless so many times, so you almost come to expect it,” he said, “but still have to understand how hard what she’s doing is. It’s incredibly hard. I just love being there to watch it. Man, it’s crazy.”

The apparatus that gives Owens the most stress is the balance beam. He and the Biles family usually sit parallel to the beam, so they have a good view — and they sit in the same order, out of superstition.

“Any slight movement that you can do off, or your hand gets too far to the left, it can make you have a balance check, and you might move to the side a little bit,” he said. “But she’s pretty good about it. She’ll catch herself and throw her hands down to catch her balance and everything.”

During the U.S. Olympic trials, NBC had a camera on Owens as Biles did her routine. Because he knows it, he’s in it every step of the way.

“I know, ‘OK, this turn is coming — phew! She got past that part,’” he said, noting that the biggest relief is when she gets through her three consecutive flips on the beam.

Owens played his college ball at Missouri Western State. He signed with the Arizona Cardinals after the 2018 NFL Draft. He didn’t play in a game until 2019 with the Houston Texans. During Owens’ first three seasons with the Texans, he appeared in only 14 games with two starts.

Then, in 2022, he started every game. In 2023, he led the Packers in special teams tackles. He was rewarded with a two-year contract to come to Chicago.

“You know, undrafted guy. I’ve been cut five times, and I come into a situation where I signed a two-year (deal) with the team, and you really feel wanted,” Owens said.

Even in Year 7, Owens maintains the Division II, undrafted mindset. He echoes the mantras of “Nothing is guaranteed” and “They say rent is due every day, so success is rented.” He says he can sometimes get caught up in it, especially with more attention, but he likes to take a step back and reflect on where he is.

Owens will call one of his best friends from college, the other starting safety. He might complain about a tough practice, and then he’ll get reminded, “You’re playing football still, man. You could be working a regular job.”

“As much as I can, I want to keep that humility,” he said. “Just remember the journey.”

When he signed with the Bears, Owens was nervous to ask for time away during camp to cheer on Biles. His agent spearheaded conversations. Owens wanted to be respectful and went through the events he wanted to prioritize and what dates he would miss. The Bears cleared it and already excused him during OTAs to see one of her competitions. The Olympics? They were going to make that work. For the Olympic events he won’t be in Paris for, he’ll organize a watch party back at Halas Hall.

“We respect the Olympics,” Bears coach Matt Eberflus said. “That is a big deal. And he’s just supporting the one he loves the most. And I think that’s so cool that he gets to do that. We welcome that, and it’s gonna be awesome. Go, USA.”

Owens checked to make sure the hotel has a gym so he can work on his cardio while he’s gone. He can keep up with any film he needs to watch. But he can really focus on being a supportive husband.

“(The Bears) are a big-time, family-first organization,” he said. “The person I love most in this world, they’re allowing me to go over and support her. And I know she appreciates it so much.”

(Photo: Carmen Mandato / Getty Images)

Kevin Fishbain is a senior writer for The Athletic covering the Chicago Bears. Previously, he spent the 2013-16 seasons on the Bears beat for Shaw Media publications. After graduating from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, he covered the NFL from 2010 to 2012 for Pro Football Weekly. Kevin was named the 2023 Illinois Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. Follow Kevin on Twitter @kfishbain