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Most NFL players wouldn’t take five days off during the peak of job battles at training camp.
Then again, most NFL players aren’t Chicago Bears safety Jonathan Owens. The sixth-year backup is taking the time away to watch his wife, Simone Biles, compete for the U.S. gymnastics team at the Paris Olympics.
“Man, it’s crazy,” Owens said. “It’s like everyone’s a gymnastics fan now. People are asking me questions, because you might be walking around the building and see a commercial with her up there, so it’s just crazy.”
The support goes right up the ladder from the coaching staff to management. Owens’ trip has been in the works since he signed a two-year contract as a free agent in March.
“It was something me and my agent talked about when we went in and I signed with the team,” said Owens, who signed with the Bears after a season with Green Bay. “The Olympics coming up and who my wife is, that was just something … it was all respectful. We went to them and just asked, ‘We would really appreciate it if he could go and support his wife,’ and they were really cool about it.
“First-class organization. I just want to thank them so much even allowing me to go over and do that. I can’t wait to be able to support her, and I know my family and my wife, she really appreciates it.”
Biles won the all-around gold medal and two other golds at the Rio Olympics in 2016, and she’s a six-time world champion. She and the Americans are favored to win the team competition.
If Biles medals, it will be the third straight Summer Games in which a Bears player’s family member won a medal. In 2021, Robert Quinn’s sister Jasmine Camacho-Quinn won gold in the 100-meter hurdles for Puerto Rico. In 2016, Corey Cogdell-Unrein, the wife of Bears defensive end Mitch Unrein, won bronze in women’s trap shooting.
Coach Matt Eberflus has no qualms about losing Owens for five days.
“Just because we respect the Olympics,” Eberflus said. “That is a big deal. And he’s just supporting the one he loves the…
Source link : https://www.foxsports.com/stories/nfl/bears-safety-jonathan-owens-taking-break-from-camp-to-support-wife-simone-biles-at-the-olympics
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Publish date : 2024-07-26 01:40:46
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