Chicago Bears safety Jonathan Owens returns to practice after watching his wife Simone Biles in Paris

LAKE FOREST – Chicago Bears safety Jonathan Owens walked into the media center Tuesday at Halas Hall wearing his Olympic credential tacked with dozens of pins from the Paris Games.

His favorites from his collection, of course, are his Simone Biles pins. They are gold hearts depicting Biles’ autograph.

Trading pins among athletes has long been an Olympic tradition. Athletes come to the games with specially designed pins and they swap with each other. Even Snoop Dogg has his own custom pins in Paris.

Owens had the chance to take about a week off during Bears training camp so he could support his wife Biles in Paris. She led the U.S. women’s gymnastics team to a team gold medal, then she won the individual all-around gold medal. In all, she left the games with four medals, adding up to a total of 11 career Olympic medals – a record for a U.S. women’s gymnast.

She’s one of the unquestioned superstars of the 2024 Olympics, cementing herself as a legend in her sport. And Owens was there every step of the way.

The 29-year-old Owens returned to Bears practice this week with some bling of his own – his Olympics pin collection.

Owens said that everyone was asking him for Biles pins. While he did give a fair number of them away, he also made sure to keep some for himself.

“They would come up to you and be like ‘Do you have a Simone Biles pin? Do you?’ ” Owens said. “So I would only trade some if it were like a super, super cool pin. But most of the time people would see you and just want to give you one. It was a cool experience.”

The NBC broadcasts frequently showed Owens in the stands next to Biles’ parents and her sister. Owens could be seen keeping score with pen and paper.

Owens and Biles met in 2020, just before the pandemic. He wasn’t allowed to travel with her to the Tokyo Games in 2021 because of coronavirus restrictions. Biles went through some very public mental health struggles when she withdrew from the Tokyo Games. The couple married in April 2023 and Owens signed with the Bears as a free agent this past March.

Owens said seeing Biles come out on the other side of her mental health struggles – she returned to competitive gymnastics in 2023 – and assert herself as a champion was “amazing to watch.” At 27 years old in a sport that has been dominated by youth, she became the oldest all-around gold medalist since 1952.

Even when she injured her calf at the beginning of the week, Biles didn’t let that stop her.

“My wife is a warrior,” Owens said. “That’s the one thing I tell people, because I equate it to how we are in football. You limp around and it will hurt a little bit right before. But as soon as you go, it’s like you forget about it. Just pain tolerance and the way she was able to go out there and look graceful with everything, people really didn’t have a clue what was going on. I’m just so happy and proud for her.”

Owens said it was cool to be featured on NBC so frequently. He was just being his genuine self during the competition.

I know how much work she’s put in to get to that point.”

—  Jonathan Owens, Bears safety

“You can’t hide your excitement when you’re out there,” Owens said. “Like I said, because of how much I love her and how proud I am for her. I know how much work she’s put in to get to that point.”

It was Owens’ first trip to Paris, and he made sure to stop by the Louvre and take in other sights and sounds in the city. During his down time, he watched film from Bears practice and kept up with what the team was doing. He even watched the Hall of Fame game live, despite the 2 a.m. start time in France.

Owens, who is a backup safety and a special teams contributor, said he didn’t miss a beat when he returned to practice.

“My coaches were calling me to see how I was doing, making sure I was getting rest,” Owens said. “Obviously, they want to congratulate Simone and everything. But they were also just keeping me up to date on what’s going on.”