This post was originally published on this site
Simone Biles is the most decorated gymnast in history.
However, when her husband, Green Bay Packers safety Jonathan Owens, first laid eyes on her through the dating app, he had no idea who she was.
Owens made the admission while on the “Pivot” podcast alongside his wife after he was asked by co-host Channing Crowder “How in the hell did you pull Simone Biles?”
“Really how’d she pull me? That’s the question man,” Owens laughed.
Owens then explained that he was in Houston and had only been there for a couple of months to play for the Texans when COVID just hit.
He decided to check out the dating app Raya after a friend’s suggestion.
“(I) had been on the app for a couple days and then she pops up. I’m like, ‘Lemme see who this is.’ I never really paid attention to gymnastics, so it piqued my curiosity and so I’m like, ‘OK, I’ll see what’s up,’ and I swiped her and it said we matched.”
Owens said he played it cool and saw that Biles had liked a few of his Instagram posts.
The Olympic gold medalist then sent the first message.
“She messaged me on the app, like, ‘Hey,’ and I’m like, ‘Man, that’s gotta be fake,’” he said “I didn’t know who she was at the time, but the first thing that I saw was that she just had a bunch of (Instagram) followers. So in my mind, I’m like, ‘OK, she’s got to be good.’”
Co-host Ryan Clark, a former NFL safety himself, gives Owens a look of skepticism as he explains why he didn’t know one of the greatest athletes of all time.
“I promise you. When she won the Olympics I was in college,” he continued. “We didn’t have NBC, we didn’t have Olympic channels and we’re in camp, late July, early August, so I’m not paying attention, so I never would’ve had a moment to watch.”
Biles messaged Owens on a Tuesday, and after texting back and forth, the pair hung out that Friday.
The gymnast made the 45-minute or so drive to Houston from her Texas suburb for the first date, and “the rest is history.”
“So you was really the catch,” Clark joked.
“I always say the man the catch. I always say we the catch,” Owens said.
“I was fighting it. I was fighting it,” he confessed. “I was afraid to commit. I (was) like ‘Man this is my third year (in the NFL)’ I’m like ‘It’s kind of early.’”
But that all changed after that first date.
“It happens when you least expect it. We hung out and we hit it off instantly. We just laughed the whole night,” he said.
While he didn’t necessarily tell her he didn’t know who she was, Owens did ask Biles who her competition was and she said it was herself.
Clark quipped immediately saying “nobody.”
“That’s my most vivid memory, she’s like ‘myself,’” Owens said. “I’m like ‘Nah for real who do you compete with?’ and she’s like ‘Myself because most of the time it comes down to if I mess up or not.’”
The moment Owens realized he was with the GOAT was when they went to a popular cookie place in Houston and “everybody stopped and kids are like shaking.”
“They’re asking me ‘Here, can you take this picture?’”
Co-host Fred Taylor, a former NFL running back, then acknowledged that Biles is good at flipping because she flipped the script.
“She shot her shot,” he explained.
“She did because if she wouldn’t have messaged me, my mind would’ve gone somewhere else,” Owens said.
“We matched, I was just the first to message,” Biles explained. “I know what I like and I know what I want.”
The couple married in April after Owens popped the question in February of 2022 after dating for two years.
The interview dropped on Dec. 19, and on Dec. 22, the Associated Press named her Female Athlete of the Year for the third time.
Suggest a Correction
