Bear Digest

Bears Safety Will Reportedly Miss Part of Camp for Good Reason

A report by USA Today says Jonathan Owens will be out for part of training camp to watch his wife Simone Biles compete at the Olympics.

Gene Chamberlain

Bears safety Jonathan Owens and his wife, USA Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, are honored pregame at a White Sox-Reds game.
Bears safety Jonathan Owens and his wife, USA Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, are honored pregame at a White Sox-Reds game. / Patrick Gorski-USA TODAY Sports
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Bears safety Jonathan Owens will be a no-show during at least a part of training camp.

It has nothing to do with an injury or holdout, of course. He's been granted time away from Halas Hall to watch his wife Simone Biles at the U.S. Olympics.

Reporting from the U.S. Olympic Trials Sunday after Biles qualified for the U.S. team, Nancy Armour of USA Today

said the Paris Games are in order for the new Bears defensive back.

"The Bears are actually granting him a couple days off from training camp, so he'll be there, yes," Biles told Armour. "For just a short little time."

Biles and Owens were married last season but they've been together since 2020 and he couldn't attend the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo due to the COVID-19 regulations put in place.

Competition for the U.S. women's gymnastics team begins July 28. Bears veterans report July 19 for training camp and they have a preseason game Aug. 1.

Biles is expected to be among the favorites in all-around and the finals for this are Aug. 1 so it's possible Owens would even be away for the Hall of Fame Game against Houston.

"Anytime we can show up for one another in support, we just get super excited because our schedules don't align that much," Biles told Armour. "So whenever it does, it's really important for the both of us to show up in support."

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Owens is a backup safety to Kevin Byard and Jaquan Brisker. He was with Green Bay last year and prior to that played four years with Houston. He started in 2022 for the Texans and started 11 games for Green Bay last season.

The other Bears backup at safety is third-year player Elijah Hicks. They have also added Tarvarius Moore from the 49ers and have several others with roster potential. So Owens' status with the team is hardly written in stone.

If Biles can win a medal, it will be the third straight Olympics a relative of someone with the Bears did this. In 2021, Jasmine Camacho-Quinn won the gold medal for Puerto Rico in the 100-meter hurdles, after setting a record in the semifinals. She is the sister of former Bears defensive end Robert Quinn. In 2016, Corey Cogdell-Unrein won the bronze medal for trap shooting at Rio's Olympics and she is the wife of former Bears defensive end Mitch Unrein.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.