Can Simone Biles and Jonathan Owens Join Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce as a Popular Culture Power Couple?

After benefiting from the romance between a Kansas City Chiefs tight end, Travis Kelce, and a pop star, Taylor Swift, the National Football League has a new power couple to potentially pad its pockets — gymnast Simone Biles and a defensive back for the Chicago Bears, Jonathan Owens.Ms. Biles continued her “Redemption Tour” Thursday by capturing the gold medal in the women’s all-around competition at Paris, two days after leading the Americans to gold in the women’s team event.Ms. Biles, the most decorated American gymnast in the history of the Olympics, was cheered throughout her competitions by her husband, Mr. Owens, who was at Paris after being excused from the start of his team’s training camp.“I love you so much baby,” Mr. Owens posted on Instagram. “You accomplish whatever you set your mind to and do it with so much grace.” He added that his wife is a “9 time Olympic medalist and counting!!! So proud to be your husband.” He wore a shirt with her name on it during competitions. While Ms. Biles competes in three more events — the vault, the balance beam finals, and the floor exercise finals — Mr. Owens returns to America, where he is expected to attend his first practice with the Bears on Saturday. The Bears defeated the Houston Texans 21-17 Thursday night in the Hall of Fame game. Most starters, though, didn’t play in what became a monsoon at Canton, Ohio.When she finishes securing her legacy as the greatest-ever American gymnast, Ms. Biles is expected to be a fixture at Bears games during the upcoming season, giving the NFL another high-profile couple to feature and to help increase merchandise sales, viewership, and add to its brand value.That could be what the Bears were thinking when management blessed Mr. Owens’s request to miss the first weeks of training camp to watch his wife compete at Paris. Mr. Owens, formerly with the Green Bay Packers, married Ms. Biles last summer and signed a two-year contract with the Bears during the offseason. Most newcomers need the benefit of an entire training camp to get acclimated. The Bears, however, excused Mr. Owens The Bears coach, Matt Eberflus, said before the Games began: “We respect the Olympics. That’s a big deal. He’s supporting the one he loves the most. I think that’s so cool that he gets to do that. We welcome that and it’s going to be awesome.”Taylor Swift performs during the opener of her Eras Tour at Glendale in March 2022. AP/Ashley Landis, fileThe residual impact should benefit the Bears and the NFL if it’s anything like the partnership between Mr. Kelce and Ms. Swift. Granted, Ms. Biles isn’t a global rock icon like Ms. Swift, and Mr. Owens isn’t a three-time Super Bowl champion like Mr. Kelce. Ms. Swift has 238 million followers on Instagram to Ms. Biles’s 10 million, while Mr. Kelce has 10 million followers to 600,000 for Ms. Owens. Ms. Biles, though, will depart Paris as one of America’s brightest athletic lights and is certain to get camera time whenever she attends an NFL game to watch her husband. That could begin as early as August 22, when the Bears play their final preseason game against the Chiefs at Kansas City.Three areas where the NFL benefited from the Kelce-Swift union were in merchandise sales, television viewership, and attracting a different demographic to the sport. Fanatics, an e-commerce partner with the NFL, reported a 400 percent increase in sales of jerseys with Mr. Kelce’s name on them after Ms. Swift attended her first Chiefs game on September 24.The trend continued throughout the season, until Mr. Kelce’s jersey was listed as the fourth best-selling jersey in February 2024. That’s when the Chiefs won the Super Bowl for the second straight season.Ms. Swift’s attendance at NFL games also reportedly led to an increase in female viewers between the ages of 18 and 49. The Chiefs owner, Clark Hunt, acknowledged the impact during his team’s run to the Super Bowl. “It’s been a very interesting, very fun year having the two of them dating, the attention that’s been focused on the Chiefs,” Mr. Hunt said. “Our female audience has grown leaps and bounds.”It won’t take long before the marriage of Ms. Biles and Mr. Owens becomes part of an NFL reality series. The Bears are the focus of HBO’s annual “Hard Knocks” series that follows a team during training camp. The Bears have never been featured on the series and now employ a rookie quarterback, Caleb Williams, drafted with the top pick out of the University of Southern California. Cameras reportedly shadowed Mr. Owens at Paris, capturing video that is likely to be broadcast during the five-episode series.

Can Simone Biles and Jonathan Owens Join Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce as a Popular Culture Power Couple?

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