The Code To Winning - FROM SUPERBOWL CHAMPION TO US CONGRESSMAN || BURGESS OWENS || EPISODE 043

Episode Date: July 24, 2025

In this powerful and inspiring episode, we sit down with Congressman Burgess Owens—former Super Bowl champion turned education advocate and U.S. legislator. From the NFL field to Capitol Hill, Owens shares the remarkable story of his transformation from professional athlete to public servant, fueled by a deep commitment to faith, freedom, and the American Dream. His journey is one of grit, redemption, and purpose, rooted in the values that shaped him as a young man growing up in the segregated South.   Burgess opens up about the pivotal moments in his life, including the challenges he faced after his football career, and how failure became a catalyst for growth and leadership. Now serving in Congress, he champions school choice and economic opportunity, believing that access to quality education and entrepreneurial tools is essential to breaking generational poverty. KG questions him on the dismantle of the department of education and what that means for schools and education in Utah and the United States aimed at giving families more freedom to choose the educational paths best suited for their children.   The conversation also explores what makes Utah a standout state in the nation, consistently ranked as one of the best places to live, raise a family, and start a business. Owens unpacks the cultural and spiritual values that make Utah unique—from its strong sense of community and family to its foundation in religious principles and personal responsibility. He makes the case that Utah’s model could serve as a blueprint for the rest of America.   We also touch on the critical role small businesses play in preserving freedom, building wealth, and creating jobs. Congressman Owens shares why fostering a spirit of belief, discipline, and personal accountability is key to success—not just in politics or sports, but in life. This episode is a masterclass in resilience, vision, and what it truly means to leave a legacy.   If you're ready to be inspired by a story of purpose-driven transformation, faith in action, and a passion for empowering future generations—this episode with Congressman Burgess Owens is one you won't want to miss.

I'll say this, the greatest message you can give to remind ourselves of in those that we meet is we need to dream big. Burgess Owens from Super Bowl to United States Congressman, he is a former NFL star who now serves as U.S. Congressman, fighting for faith, freedom, and the American dream. This is the one place, the one environment, the one culture, that has been from the very beginning. You dream past your obstacles. If you do that, you find out that we all have a lot more in ourselves that we ever thought we could have. We sometimes don't see that potential. But if we dream big, have a faith, and to God that can give us those potentials by just doing the right things. It's everything we can do. It comes in a very rewarding life, to say to least. The time I grew up in the Deep South in the 60s, days of segregation, KKK, Jim Crow. But within our community, we had a lot of pride. We felt like

all the other Americans at that time. We were not assimilating, but we were proud to be Americans. My dad had just come back in World War II. We felt that the way to get respect was not by demanding it or begging for it, but commanding it by success. I think the key to success, one of the these that I've come to understand. If you have a big dream, how willing you are to overcome the obstacles, the anxiety, the self-doubt, the fear of failure, all those things that stop so many people. If the dream is big enough, you get those habits, those little habits of continue to this, doing the things you feel uncomfortable to do, that you realize this is going to be okay when you get past it. Super Bowl champion 1980 with the Oakland Raiders. I think Super Bowl is one of the most

amazing achievements. One can actually gain as sports, especially in the United States as well. What is the most or what's the best lesson that you've learned from that experience? What a great question, because this is something that I've tied into my team. What I'd like to remind people who don't know, there were 12 years of losing seasons before I got to the 13th. The Code 2 winning insights you need today to seize the world tomorrow. Today we have a very, very special guest. An interview I've been looking forward to for approximately six months or so. I'm going to give you a brief introduction of our guest today.

He goes by the name of Burgess Owens, Congressman Burgess Owens. He was born in Florida. He was part of the Miami Hurricanes as one of four African Americans to receive full-right scholarship as well. He was the 13th overall first round NFL draft pick in 1973. He won the Super Bowl in 1980 with the Oakland Raiders, a member of the House of Representatives. He also is also the member of the House of Education and Workforce Committee and a member of the House of Transportation Infrastructure Committee as well. Like I said, this is going to be a very, very enlightening interview.

Someone I've been looking forward to interview, a lot of experience, a mentor, a leader as well. Without further ado, our guest today, Burgess Owens. Thank you, Congressman. Looking forward to him, a friend, absolutely. Awesome stuff. Very exciting. Awesome. I just had a very, very embarrassing moment today.

I was about a minute late. I'm usually always about 10 minutes early, but as I'm walking towards the podcast studio, as you know, Congressman Owens is very, very punctual, arrived here way on time. I'm out there fixing my tie, and I just see a large man, you know, tall, large in stature, just looking at me as I'm fixing my tie.

Very, very embarrassing. But luckily, he gave me a very wonderful and warm smile. So that's the reason why we're still here today. very much. Well, looking forward to it. We had a chance to get a note in a little bit. And your background is very interesting, too. And I'll say this, what I love about hearing from people like yourself, young people, is that you understand the American Dream is alive and well, and you're willing to go for it, willing to take the risk. And the ups and downs of life, you're willing to see past that. And that's really the message that we should always continue to give out, that this is the

place to take the chance and go for it. Thank you so much. It really is true. I often tell, I mean, I studied financial economics. I graduated in financial economics. I did like two internships and in New York. I've obviously pursued the sales and entrepreneurial space, but I often tell people a lot like this is not only the capital of capitalism, but it's also the opportunity where you can actually achieve anything. And I feel like there is just something, there's an energy, there's just something that allows entrepreneurs to just reach their full potential. And that's one of the things I'm super grateful for. And I've been pursuing it from the minute I arrived in JFK Airport, Kist ground and said, well, this is the American dream

and it's pursued. So I'm grateful you've touched on that. I'll say this. The greatest message you can give to remind ourselves of than those that we meet is we need to dream big. This is the one place, the one environment, the one culture that has been from the very beginning. You dream past

your obstacles. If you do that, you find out how, that you have, we all have a lot more in ourselves that we ever thought we could have. We sometimes don't see that potential. But if we dream big, have a faith in God that can give us those potentials by just doing the right things. It's everything we can do.

It comes a very rewarding life, to say the least. Awesome stuff. Thank you very much, Congressman. I want to touch a bit about, you know, there's a lot of topics that we're going to try and just cover right now. For instance, football, politics, and also leadership. But how would you define yourself today from all those specific components of all? That's a good question.

I've become an internal optimist, and I think that's very, very important. You have to always have a little bit of that hope out there, no matter how tough things get, if you can have enough hope to take the next step, have enough hope to realize that everything's going to work out okay in the end, no matter what you're going through. Then through that process, you learn and you grow up,

I'm sitting here talking with you, and when I was probably your age, a little bit younger, I was very much of introvert. I wasn't what person was going to do a lot of talking. I just didn't feel like comfortable doing that. But in the process of realizing that my dreams are on the other side of that, of that fear of speaking, I figured how to approach it, how to get better. And I got into a reading regimen for 25, 30 years that really helped me come out of that.

And it's amazing how it works out. So I would say the biggest things I'm an eternal optimist, I believe that if you dream big, you can overcome any obstacle that comes at you. If you know that you're here for a reason, that each and every one of us has a mission. What that mission is takes a while sometimes, understand what it is. But once you get it, you know why you get up every single day.

You feel that whatever you're doing is not work. And once you tie that mission into your dreams, into the fact you hear for a purpose, then it all works out. And then the fact we live in the greatest country in the history of mankind gives us that foundation, to know that this is the place to make those things happen. I love that so much.

And I mean, I grew up in a very strong Christian background household as well. My father's actually an attorney back in South Africa, and I kind of told you about like the where it is like leadership in the church as well. I feel something he instilled in us from a very young age is just the importance of education, continue to educate yourself, continue to read, continue to study, And it's something that has been pretty much the foundation of our lifestyle as children as well. And I see that, you know, obviously you in that field as well.

That's what kind of the components that you kind of cover. How would you stress on the importance of education today to the young generation? Education is everything. It was our founder, Thomas Jefferson, that kind of highlighted paraphrase, ignorant and free can never be. our founders understood that the way we had a chance to think, to read and write, to understand what wisdom comes from. And it is, if you get that understanding and think else, be learned to think outside the box, always ask those questions why. Then we become not only a better person, but we help our country become that better place. I was very blessed.

My dad was an educator. For 40 years, he was a professor, Florida, and him. My mom was an educator, a high school teacher. So we lived in an environment. And during the time, one thing that also about the time I grew up in, I grew up in the Deep South in the 60s, days of segregation, KKK, KKK, Jim Crow. But within our community, we had a lot of pride. We felt like all the other Americans at that time.

We were not assimilating, but we were proud to be Americans. My dad had just come back in World War II. We felt that the way to get respect was not by demanding it or begging for it, but commanding it by success. And so education was that gateway. We figured out if we can teach ourselves to be proud, to be articulate, to bring a presence and a value, whatever we come in, then we will command respect. And that's where the community went. So I think education at the very core of where our country moves forward. And that's really where I think we've failed our kids in a long, long time, for a long time.

The fact that we now have 70% of eighth graders not being read and write, do math, that we have failed our kids to do the basic things to make sure we move forward. So that's at the core. And right now, my mission, part of my mission is making sure I can do everything I can to help as many kids as possible to have what I had, just ability to wake up every single day and knowing how to articulate myself, knowing how to get better at overcome those obstacles, learning how to read so you can take information in and become wiser.

If you can't read the scriptures, you don't know your connection that you have to God, heaven, who's placed this here with certain talents to do certain things. And that connection and understanding that is so important when you come down to dreaming or overcoming obstacles. And I'll say that one of the best things that I've learned through the obstacles is number one, that I am here for a reason, like all of us are, that I have a remarkable opportunity to do one thing with the experiences I've had. And we talked about this a little while ago.

As we go through it, the message we have to give to others is if I can do it, you can do it. So I think part of my experience is the obstacles I've gone through is be able to give that little bit of inspiration. It's going to be okay. If I can do it, you can do it. I can overcome obstacles I've overcome. You can also make those same options. And now speaking on this topic of education, there's sometimes this misinterpreted. People watch the news and they end up seeing maybe the elimination of the Department of Education.

and what that actually means because because of just the growing tension, there's always going to be people that are going to misinterpret or misunderstand what effect that has on Utah's education. Absolutely. We have to understand that what makes our country what it is and the greatest place in the history of mankind is competition, is merit, is innovation, is giving the best product for the best price. That's capitalism.

We've had capitalism in every other. industry we've dealt with. The reason we came to this particular studio is because of capitalism, something about it, whether it be the whatever it is, it makes it so this is the right place, the right thing to do. The one place we have not had capitalism involved is education. And I think it's been on purpose. We have an environment where it's kind of like a monopoly. Everyone is forced to go there. No one pays the consequences for failure. And there's no competition to go elsewhere. If you do that, then you get the worst product at the worst price. We have failed for our kids, and it started with the Department of Education. It was not there

to find out how to make sure our kids were getting smarter. It was there to provide a nice space for adults, a nice, a nice, comfortable, secure job. We can just continue to make a good income. And the result of that is now we have kids across our country, cannot read and write, cannot do math. I have no idea what our history is all about, have no pride in our country. You come from South Africa, you have more pride in our country than people have grown up here. And there's something wrong with that. So the Department of Education was there for one reason, should be one reason, for the kids, now for adults. If it's failing, then we need to do something else.

I think personally the best power to be put in terms of education should be in the parents' hands in the local area, in the districts. We have here in Utah, we have a culture that cares about our kids. is number one. We want to make sure we have the smartest, most productive, most hopeful kids in the entire world. So why not have the funding come here so we can give our teachers and our parents a chance to make sure our kids are done, are being treated right, versus having all that money being taken in D.C. with no accountability, with adults living a good lifestyle, but not having a good product. So we're at a really good place because I think COVID was part of it. Excuse me.

guys, sorry about this. I think COVID kind of helped. It gave parents a chance to kind of take a pause and realize as they looked over their kids' shoulders, what they were being taught, the direction they'll be given, how little they actually knew, and realized this is not the way I was raised. This is not what I was expecting.

So they begin to take more of an active role in terms of the education of their children, and they begin to demand more from the districts. And right now, choice is a big deal because choice goes through everything we do, every aspect of our life, the car we drive, the direction we take, the GPS system we use. It's all about choices.

And we should have the same thing in education. We do that. We're going to find innovation that we've never seen before. We're going to find ways of thinking and approaching and giving our teachers, the good teachers, a career that allows them to truly excel. I look forward to the day that we put our focus back on the educational system. That's what I could do in any other arena.

My dad was an educator. My mom was too. They loved it. They just, they got excited by seeing their kids exposed to things that they will have them to grow. Excuse me. Excuse me, guys. And with that being said, of all the environments, of all the, I guess, industries that we can highlight, the industry of education should be at the very top. Because we can do everything else right.

We can fix everything else. But if our kids do not grow up to understand their potential and to pass its legacy down, then we've really lost the whole fight. So I'm looking for an opportunity not only to have our kids been brought up in a much positive way. but having our teachers, those are really doing a good job, highlighted, paid well, respected, and that occupation bringing so many other people from other occupations that would love to teach also. I love that so much. Thank you so much, Congressman.

I'm pretty sure you've recently seen, you guys are very well aware of that, that Utah has been ranked number one state in the nation's living for three years in a row. Part of that has a lot of to do with infrastructure, stand-of-living, and the economy economy as well. What do you think that Utah has done separate compared to the rest of the 49 states and what can they like look to do to improve? You know that's that's a good question.

To me it's an easy one because I grew up in an environment very similar to what I'm finding here. I grew up in an environment in which the four tenants that were taught was bought into by the entire community. So we had a great family, great communities. We had kids coming out thinking, that my goals go out to succeed, so I reflect very good on my community and my family. And those tenants was faith, family, the free market, and education. I don't think there's any culture in the entire country that has that in such a focused way in Utah. It's kind of just who we are.

And it starts with learning what service is all about. We're the only culture across the country that works hard to have our kids for 18 years to grow up to go someplace around the world. wants to visit and they celebrate when they leave and two years later they celebrate when they come back because they know that in their process they learn about service they learn about overcoming obstacles learn about the anxiety of failure and still getting making it through it all and more importantly taking risk which is where the entrepreneurial spirit comes from so so i think what we're doing here we're not only the number one in terms of education with number one in terms

of innovation the growth our country no one's no state's growing as fast as we are there's no even we just came recently the happiest state in the country. So we put all that together. You start to see that there's an environment that people come and visit us and they just want to keep coming back. Either come back to visit or come back to stay. So we have to hold on to that. Again, it goes back to those four tenants, faith, family,

the free market and education. If we hold on to that, then we will truly be, I think, the light for the rest of the country in terms of how it is to assimilate, how it is to dream big, how it is to overcome. obstacles, how it is to maintain those, the family structure, which is everything. It makes everything work out okay. So I'm one of those guys. I'm glad to some of my kids.

I have six kids. I said them all to go to college out here, thinking they're going to come back to the west, the east coast. They decided to stay, and so we decided to follow. And it's the greatest move I've ever made, to say to least. And just to add on that, thank you so much. When I first came here in 2017, I came for, like, obviously, my faith journal conference time. I spent like a month, did the whole tour around like the West Coast, like Nevada, California and so forth.

And then I came back again to Utah. And while being here, I just couldn't, I started seeing just small businesses just thriving. I started seeing everyone just supporting small businesses. I started seeing like just young entrepreneurs owning homes at the age of 22, which is something I've never seen in my entire life. They just finished their mission a year or two years later, end up like owning. That's when I started seeing that there's something that, this is. Utah's doing so significantly different compared to other states. And it's just something that not only just, you know, people go out and serve their missions or for two years of service mission,

they still come back and they go do door-to-door sales, you know, whatever it may be. There's a level of self-reliance that it's just been taught from, like, parents to their kids, you know, and I feel like there's something that Utah's doing significantly well compared to other states. Would you say that? I think the key to success, one of the things that I've come to understand is how willing, if you have a big, dream, how willing you are to overcome the obstacles, the anxiety, the self-doubt, the fear, failure, all those things that stop so many people. If the dream is big enough and you get those those habits, those little habits of continuous,

doing the things you feel uncomfortable to do that you realize this is going to be okay when you get up and get past it. And that's what the culture does here. So I always surprised we have so many entrepreneurs, no, it's not at all. And the biggest thing about those entrepreneurs, they're taking risks. many don't make it, but they get back up and they try another time and another time. So they continue to learning, and the message always comes through, and this is what I've seen in this particular state, you hear the stories of the struggle. I love the fact that those who succeed are humble enough to say, you know what, I did it because of this.

I did it because I was tenacious. I did it because I had this faith. I had a family backing me up. Whatever it is, if I can do it, you can do it. story is so important because hope is the end of the day the one thing that we need to hold on to continue to move forward and once you lose that then everything becomes dark everything becomes why why even try and unfortunately that's a lot of our country that's what's happening right now we have so many people that are hopeless do not have family around them do not have anyone

is pulling for them have no faith in a god that that is they're connected with and I can't even Imagine how tough of a life to go through with that. And that's why it's our responsibility to not only succeed, but give the message out that there is a way you can get through this and just hang in there. And the better the struggle is, the overcoming, the better the story is, the more hope comes out of the process. I love that so much.

Thank you, Congressman. I want to talk about now just your NFL journey, your football journey. I never understood the sport, by the way. At home, I used to wife. My dad's a big fan of my football is different than our football, right? It's literally football. So, however, how I first became accustomed to, like, the sport, my dad's a massive fan of Remember the Titans.

And so, obviously, based on a true story, and, like, I think I kind of, like, made a symmetrical, kind of like likened it to your story when you, one of the first African-Americans actually received full rights scholarship in Miami as well, University of Miami. Would you say your journey started very similar to like to remember the Titans Way? That's exactly how my journey started. And it's interesting because I saw that, I connected to it immediately, and now that I've caught it with some of my other friends that I came through during that era than the high school era, they all see the same thing.

I grew up in the 60s. I was a third one of three blacks to integrate this all-white high school. and that first year was very similar to what you saw there. The upside, and this is what I love about sports and military, when it's pure, when it's right, when it's based on merit, is you learn to see past the differences because the goal is to win. So my first year at Rickers High School was very similar to remember the Titans. We did a lot of fighting. We had to figure out how to, I mean, it's interesting that will come so far that,

everything was color. I mean, you were judged based on your color, both sides. We'd never had this opportunity to really assimilate or to connect. So we're learning about each other during this process and learning to overcome the prejudice of our fathers. And that was a tough kind of period to go through. But then you find something in common where all of a sudden you began to respect each other

because of the value you bring it to the team. And if the goal is to win, then all of a sudden you're high-fiving guys that you might not have liked before because it's color, but all of a sudden you realize this guy can help me to win. And so it's something that brings us together. So that's what I experienced. And it was one of the best things I think I've gone through.

A couple of things. Number one, to see how it works when merit is at the very top. When you believe that you're trying to win in the best talent, no matter what size, color, religion, none of that matters. It's who can help me to proceed to where I can feel good about this process? I'll say the other piece of it, the other piece of it is how far we've come. One thing about our country, and it's within our founding papers, is our goal is becoming more perfect union. Now, I'll say this about the founders.

The fact that they begin with that statement says a lot about how humble they were to realize they were not perfect. You have people today who cast disparities on everybody. else, because everybody else is doing things wrong as if they have this perfect life and they don't, or this perfect place where they know everything. We have a country that recognizes, humble enough to know that I'm not perfect, we're not perfect, but we can become better. And then look back and say, look how far we've come. That, the era that I grew up in the 60s where literally we had no assimilation, we didn't interact based on race. And now here we are, what, 60 years later, my family.

I have six kids. We represent black, white, Hispanic, American Indian, and Trinidadian. I have 17 grandkids. They call each other cousins. They color the rainbow. And that's the way America has always been. They don't think about color. They think about the love they have as cousins.

They hang out together. And that's the way America works. So I would say that era that I grew up in was probably the best because I can now look back and realize the potential that we've always had we just have to recognize it. And so to say least, it was a good,

good peer to go through it. I went to University of Miami. I was the third black to get a scholarship there. One other thing that I just want to point out, when I went to University of Miami, it was not to play in the NFL.

This was before the NFL was the big game it is today. My dad was a college professor. So my goal is becoming marine biologists because I was spending a lot of time in his laboratory during the summers. And this is also during that period where the biggest obstacles we had, other than the Jim Crow segregation, was the low expectation we had on ourselves or other people had on the race. We were not supposed to be intelligent at that time.

That was the thing that we always had to overcome. When you look at the marches of Martin Luther King in those days, you go back, think about what you see. You see people dressing and marching in the middle of summer, white shirts, dark ties, very articulate leaders, very disciplined. So no matter what was said or what was done, they disciplined themselves because they wanted to show that we were a race that can control ourselves, a race of character, race of principles, a race of a very smart, articulate principal people. And that's how we gain the respect of Americans across the country. Folks had never experienced what black Americans were doing because of segregation. They saw a race that was fighting for the right things, doing it the right way, commanding respect because of the discipline we had in so many different ways.

And it was just a good thing to see and experience it to see how that works. We have to continue to do that, by the way. We have to always recognize that if people don't have high expectations for us, prove them wrong. Just work harder, do better. Don't fall into the trap of buying into their expectations. Have ours that are very strong. No matter what community, what race, what individual, we can all do the same thing.

Just set out goals high and never fall into the trap of the low expectations that other people might have. I love that so much. And with all the interviews that I've watched and everything, some of your speeches, I like that you touch a lot on not being a victim, being a victor as well. And I think that's very, very important. The only topic that I feel like probably, in my opinion, needs a better solution.

And before I kind of get the topic, I strongly feel I don't want to be a hypocrite because, like I said, I'm from a family, a household of two, a raised in great parents, goodly parents, good-looking parents as well, you know. But there's a topic that I feel like it's a little controversial today, which is the DEI topic. Yeah. Because the reason I, when I kind of went through the stats that I wanted to quickly share right now with ethnicity of children that live with both parents, with white parents, you know, kids is 74%. Black is steady 9.7%. And then you look at only living with the mother or white kids is probably 7.4%. And then the black kids is 48.1%. So there's almost like 50% of children that are just raised in a motherly household. And I understand the importance. of having a dad in the household.

I've seen that in like in my entire life. And even growing up in South Africa, almost most of my friends had both parents as well. I feel like there's a growing concern happening today in the United States. And the reason I speak about the DEI, I don't believe people necessarily need pandering. I don't believe people need to be, you know, hired off like merit.

I still feel like there's a family structure that may put people in a disadvantage sometimes in certain situations. Do you think there could be better things done to try and help? solutions for that situation. Absolutely. Let me just start off by the family unit that I grew up in because I've seen what it is in a segregated community when those four factors, faith, family, free market education was at the foremost. I grew up also with a mom and a dad. Matter of fact, back within the 40s, 50s and 60s, because of the commitment we had as a race to those

four tenants, we led the country in the growth middle class, led the country in a matric, late in college. men committed to marriage. At that time, 80% up until the 60s and 70s, 80% of black men would marry the mothers of their children. It was just the way it was done.

We just brought up to think that you commit yourself or you have a good name, you want to make sure you take care of your family. And the way you do that is raise a good family, raise good kids, and move forward. So 80% of black men married to their mothers of the children has now turned to 20% is flipped upside down.

We have lost the idea of what it is to be responsible, dedicated fathers. We're allowing our mothers to try to raise boys and girls on their own and think that there's not going to be a consequence. So we have a choice. We have a choice of deciding where we want to be committed, men, to our families, to our kids, to our name, or not. And unfortunately, when we're not committed, we pay a deep, deep price. It is unfortunate to see the increase in the negatives, the crime rate, the abortions, all the things that happen when you pull your way from that family unit.

And I'll say this to this. It's important to recognize the idea of the family is so critical to success. And that's why it's under attack at all times. So I would say that because of my background, I know what can be, and that's why education is so important. We need to make sure that we have, and there's one other thing that I was raised as a young man, that I think we need to bring back in a big way.

And I was talked to this by my dad. And if I ever forgot it, my dad would always remind me. It says to be successful, to be happy, to be a productive individual, have a good family one day, learn to love God, country family, respect women and authority. What are we seeing mostly now nowadays because of the breakdown of the family, a disrespect of women, a disrespect of authority. And people, you have young men now filming disrespect and thinking it's cool just to, instead of stopping it, they post it. That is the mindset we have

to get away from. We have to take, take on the idea that we have responsibility, to not only to be to have a good name ourselves, but to be able to pass down something down to our kids and our wives will also want to be proud of. So it's a different mindset, but it comes down to family. If you understand that piece of it, which I was raised in, and many of us were, and it's still very prevalent here in Utah. That is where the rest of it kind of begins to kind of become a fulfillment

of what we want to try to get done, success we want to experience. I love that so much. Thank you so much. And I know that you also see you of a nonprofit. Can I say one other thing? Yes, sir, yes. Because you mentioned DEI. I just want to make that point.

I grew up at a time when everything was about color. You were judged based on the color. You met somebody in the 60s and the segregated community. And if it was a white person, they saw you a certain way. If you were a black person, they saw you in a certain way. Our goal is becoming more perfect union. by looking at each other from inside out, not outside in. We looked at character.

We're supposed to look at the tenacity, the desire to be a better person, a nicer person that has nothing to do with color. And for us to say that we're a victim because 200 years ago, someone we had no idea, we never met, many who don't even know who they are, because they were slaves,

that we deserve something today is not the American way. So DEI is probably one of the most racist things that I've seen since I was raised. in the 60s is saying that we should have the right to look at somebody and make a choice that they cannot succeed matter of fact to think about this only way that di is ever really used is never in the intellectual i mean it's never in the physical in the sports we don't see di in football you don't see d i in basketball you don't see in in areas where we have to compete and you physically have to overcome obstacles you see it the victimization when it comes down to intellect

You see it when the bar of education is lowered so that certain people can succeed, quote, succeed and progress, not knowing if you don't earn that progress, you'll pay a price at some point. So the bottom line of this is we live in a country of merit. We live in a country in which you can compete one against each other. And guess what? Under the skin, we're the same. Heart beats the same way. blood flows the same way. We dream the same way.

We don't dream the same way. Underneath at exterior is what truly makes us who we are. That's who we need to start building up and respecting and recognizing. That's what draws us to people. Or that's what tells us not to go a certain way. So I think I'm so glad we're getting away from that because it does probably the worst for those who buy into it, which are the black Americans who will put at the very bottom of the totem pole

in terms of the opportunities, the soft bigotry of low expectations. The soft bigotry of low expectations. That's what we see when you have this process of the. And just a quick follow up on there. Do you think then there could be like better programs to help those that are in a disadvantage and like raised up in like different family structure and like more educational?

Choice. Okay. Choice. if you allow kids to be educated, I don't care what color they are. If you tell them they can succeed, do you have the highest expectations, I don't care what color they are, they will match those expectations. So instead of us, particularly in those areas where education is the worst, opportunity is the worst, crime is the highest, abortion is the highest.

So in those areas where in the urban areas, particular, let choice be part of it. Those moms and dads want their kids to succeed like anybody else. And yet they sit back and they watch the failure of a school system. And there's nothing they can do is that child begins to have a low self-esteem and surround themselves with people with low self-esteem and then go out and do stuff that will never get them moving forward. So let's have choice in education. Let's make education the top priority in our society. Let's bring the best teachers in the entire country.

Let's teach them, let's prepare them, let's reward them, and then let them go into these communities where in the past, they've had no opportunities. And you can see an uprising. I watched it in my community. Again, my first exposure to white Americans wasn't until 16 years old. But yet, we were taught how to think, how to articulate themselves, how to be disciplined,

how to respect others. And that group, that was the Clarence Thomas group, that was the, you go through all the, the doctor, oh gosh, anyway, you can go through all the Susan Rice, all those folks that came through my era that grew up in a segregated community, they've gone on and have gone on to become very successful. We had the same thing in common. We had parents that cared. We had an educational system. We had black teachers that were teaching their kids. That was their contribution. and we came out of those communities

saying that we're going to go out and succeed to put a good name and a good message and reputation on the community we just came out of. We can do that, and then we'll overcome all this stuff that we're going through right now. I love that response.

Thank you very much, Congressman Owen. Just to respect your time, I just probably got three more questions before we conclude. One of them, I often feel that day-to-day American actually agrees more than they disagree. I feel like sometimes media might portray

a different like narrative as well. Do you think there'll come a time where the country will be a bit more united than what it has been in the past few years where instead of saying people are so divisive where we actually come together considering how you've seen that you only win when a team comes together?

Yeah, I do. And I see it happening because we're going and we're starting to educate our kids in a different way. We have a very aggressive program of getting choice across the country right now and I'm part of that. Right now, I'm excited about being part of that.

When I talk about my mission, my mission is make sure that every child has access to their dreams. That's being able to read, write, think, have conversations. You know, what's happening when you have an educated people? They can actually talk to each other because you have so much confidence in yourself that you can talk to somebody who doesn't believe, agree with you, and still be okay. You realize if I'm nice, if I'm respectful, one day I'll bring them over my way. And if we both think that way, it's a win-win. The problem is when we can't think

you kind of reach your limit of solutions, people get frustrated, they pick up a stick and they hit you with it. And if you talk to anyone who's very angry today, have a deeper conversation to realize how little they really know about very much. They're very emotional

because that's what they've been trained to do. But the goal right now is actually, again, to get back to where we can have these conversations I believe our country is just at the very beginning of doing some great things. We're going to have competition, merit, and education. We're going to expose our kids more to our history, our Western civilization that's been over time. It's a spiritually based culture.

It was one of pioneers of people who took risk who saw something bigger, whether it be coming across the ocean of the pyramid pyramids, or to leave the West and come to east and go. come to the west through all these mountains, they saw something so much bigger themselves that will take that risk and take the chance. And once they got out here, they built things. They just, they took, they took something they wanted to give a legacy to our kids. Once we get back to recognize them, why are we here, really? We're here to make sure our kids have a better, better life, a better legacy than we have. Every, every generation has done that until now. We have a generation now that we're about to turn it around.

that doesn't believe that right now we're boarding more of our kids than ever before. It's a generation which our kids are less educated than we were. They're less appreciative of our flag of our country than we were. We've turned things around and away this last generation that we have to write the ship. We write the ship by focusing on what can we do to make sure our children live a better life, that we at one point look at them, they're running circles around us. and we're so proud of them because they're doing that. That's what every generation has done until now.

And we're finally right now, I think back to where that's going to be our focus moving forward. So I'm more optimistic than I've ever been because once our country begins to have conversations together, once we realize what we have in common is we the people, then the things we can do are unbelievable. And coming back together right now is, I think, the ultimate goal that we all have. I love that. Thank you so much, Congressman Owens. Super Bowl champion 1980 with the Oakland Raiders. I think Super Bowl is one of the most amazing achievements.

One can actually gain as sports, especially in the United States as well. What is the most, or what's the best lesson that you've learned from that experience? What a great question. Because this is something that I've tied into my team. What I'd like to remind people who don't know, there were 12 years of losing seasons before I got to the

the 13th. Wow. My last year in high school was losing season, four years of the University of Miami, all losing seasons. Seven years of the Jets, the Jets are doing exactly now what they did back 40 years. So it's 12 seasons of losing. And I'll be honest with you, I came to a point my seventh year of the Jets that I really thought about retirement. I was so frustrated. I was so, I guess getting a little depressed. I watched my guys winning. They're going to playoff games and Super Bowl games. And no matter how hard I seem to work every single year, year, how optimistic I was that this year is going to be much better, it always ended up the same. And 12 years in sports, there's a long time. So I had no idea the 13th, I was going to be traded

to the Raiders. And even though we were on a team that was not expected to do very well, we were underdog's entire year. We were the first wildcard team to get to the playoffs, the first wild car team to win a Super Bowl game. So all along the way along the line, we were not supposed to be there. And to see a team come together, to see what it was, to all of a sudden not really be concerned about anybody else in your team, just making sure that you were not the weak link. To see what team really felt like in which everybody felt the same way

that we can win one week at a time, it was a remarkable experience. And my message from that, and this is kind of a life lesson, I talked about that 13th season, went to Super Bowl, sitting in the locker room and just so excited about being there. And the only thing we regretted, we had nobody else to play

when it was all sitting down, we just loved the camaraderie, the feeling. But the message that comes out of that is everyone has a 13th season. And that's when everything works out. Everything just came together. Everything you looked at

of going through has been so well worth it because you're here. You succeed. it. But it's the 12 seasons before that makes that 13th season possible. It's the ups and downs. It's the tough times. It's the lessons you learn. It's the tenacity, faith, forgiveness. Think of all the things that we want to become better at, to become a better person, is learned through those tough times. And that 13th season, this is a confirmation that it was all worth it. And then when you get to the 13th, you just go through it all over again. So I would say that was one of the

the best lessons and I thought about this much long after the season my career was over with I thought about how that worked out and how much I learned during that time including probably one of the best things I had done during the time I was very introverted during that most of my life but my last season in the NFL I read a book and that book changed things around it was think and grow rich by Napoleon Hill best book ever it is it's a classic life changing And that's exactly what happened. I realized that who I would be is what I thought about, who I associated with, and what I said to myself.

If I told myself, I'm shy, I'm introverted. I will always be that way. If I say I love to talk to people, I'm bold. And if you see those things, your tongue allows your mind to really think in a different way. So that 13th season allows. me to also to learn how to change the progression of my life moving forward. Boy, excuse me, guys. And so that was one.

We have a 13th season and the last one that our team does so well, both here in the district and D.C. Because you look at the scoreboard continually and you see the score is not turned out, but you can still make a difference in the way you act, the way you act, the way you you play. So the message is you cannot control, you cannot control the school board, but you can control the hustle. Love that. And so here in a district and back in D.C., we have a team that loves the hustle. We just, I feel very proud of that. And then we get the feedback from our, from the folks that we serve that, that was just always there. We're always doing the,

don't we have to get done. So those are two things I learned from NFL that I've tried to to really make sure my kids understood the same things. And I'll say this one last thing. Of all the messages that that drives us and our progress is the message we have to ourselves. We have to be very careful about what we say about ourselves. If you want to be shy, say yourself. Tell yourself that all the time.

You don't want to do real bad at math. If you want to be a victim, tell yourself that all the time. And that's exactly what will happen. If you want to be a victor, if you want to feel that you can speak in front of anyone, that you have a talent, tell yourself that all the time. And you're programming your brain to have muscle memory. And when an opportunity comes, you just act on it because you've told yourself that so often. You're not depending on somebody else. I obviously like to have, you'd like to be in an environment to get the same feedback.

And that's another choice. Put yourself in a place, whether you be reading, what you look at TV, the people are you around. make sure that's a good influence. You're getting the right message. But at the end of the day, the message that really counts is the message you give to yourself. And that's why Think of Grow Rich

is such a powerful, powerful book. It's back in 1930s, Napoleon Hill put that together. And it is still today impacting lives in a big way. The best thing about the answer you gave is that I had three questions and that one answer gave an answer to all three questions.

I'm not going to get in trouble with Casey. That's the best thing about that. So I want to thank you so much for the lessons you taught, the importance of education, being a victim or a victim, the lessons you spoke about, like, especially the 13th season, because sometimes life can get so overwhelming at times

where you don't see the bigger picture, you don't see the end result right there, but there's always lessons we gain from faith through the struggles we actually experience as well. Congressman Owens, thank you so much for your time, sir. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Absolutely.