The Green Bay Packers safety, 28, appeared on the latest episode of The Pivot podcast alongside his wife — who recently became the most decorated gymnast of all time — and recounted the story of how they met, including the fact that she reached out first.
Asked by co-host Channing Crowder, “How in the hell did you pull Simone Biles?”, Owens admitted he “didn’t know who she was” back in 2020 when they first connected, after matching on the Raya dating app. “I’m like, ‘Lemme see who this is.’ I never really paid attention to gymnastics, so it piqued my curiosity,” said the NFL player.
He soon learned that Biles, 26, was more notable than he’d realized. “The first thing that I saw was that she just had a bunch of [Instagram] followers. So in my mind I’m like, ‘Okay, she’s gotta be good,’ ” Owens said on the podcast. Explaining how it was possible that he didn’t know who Biles was at first considering her notoriety, Owens said, “When she won the Olympics, I was in college and we didn’t have NBC, we didn’t have Olympics channels, and we were in [training] camp [in] late July, early August.”
“So I’m not paying attention. I never would’ve had a moment where I would’ve watched [her compete],” he added.
She messaged him first, which led to them “texting back and forth” before connecting in person for the first time three days later, according to Owens.
“We couldn’t do much, because COVID happened and everything was shut down,” said the football player, who was playing for the Houston Texans at the time. “So she came down to Houston. She lived in the suburbs, so she had to drive about 45 minutes. Then the rest is history.” The couple tied the knot on April 22, 2023, at the Harris County Courthouse in Houston. A few weeks later, they hosted a second wedding celebration in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
