As you’ve seen by all the political posters around town, it’s voting season! We asked if candidate for the Republican seat in Congressional district 4 would be willing to come and sit down and introduce himself.
Episode 210 brought us Super bowl champ and political candidate, Burgess Owens. This election will pick who will be running against current Democrat, Ben McAdams. Mr. Owens opponents are Jay McFarland, Kim Coleman, and Trent Christensen. With the understanding that a platform is important, we really wanted to take out time with Burgess to get to know him as a person and not just a candidate.
Burgess grew up in Florida during the 60’s. His parents were professors/teachers and he was one of the first black students, who were also athletes, integrated into the local high school at the age of 16. Burgess played football through high school and after sending a tape to University of Miami, that is where he spent his college years. At one time he even had marine biology dreams, but eventually those sank to the bottom of the ocean. After college, he played professional football as a safety for 10 years with the Jets and the Raiders. In 1973 he was first round pick with the Jets and he ended his career, or what he called his 13th season, as a Super Bowl winner (1980) with the Raiders in 1983.
After a successful sports career he moved his family to the NY Metro area, became a chimney sweep (yes, we did ask if he had a Mary Poppins moment during his tenure) until he had an opportunity to move to Utah to work for Corel Word Perfect. Also interesting fact, if you don’t remember Corel was developed at BYU! Despite trials and tribulations, Burgess finds himself an eternal optimist. His beliefs are strong and you can catch him as a regular commentator on Fox News. He is also an author of several books, including Why I Stand: From Freedom to the Killing Fields of Socialism, and Liberalism or How to Turn Good Men into Whiners, Weenies and Wimps.
He has been in Utah for a few years and during his time here he has created a non-profit, Second Chance for Youth, which gives kids that have been incarcerated a chance to never go back to where they were.
If you want to learn more about Burgess you can visit his website and Facebook. You can also visit his campaign website to learn about his 4 tenet’s:
- Head– Education and Critical Thinking Skills
- Heart– God, Service, Compassion & Empathy
- Hand- Industry, Self-Reliance and Love of Work
- Home- Family
With an incredible journey to where he is now, we hope that we can all remember what Mr. Owens said, “every chapter is a great lesson.”
Burgess Owens 
We got to wear his Super Bowl ring!
We ask our guests what their one thing they couldn’t part with in Utah would be. Burgess started by saying. “culture.” He said it is something we take for granted here in Utah. He told us that Utah always feels like home and it will be his last stop!
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Music By: Folk Hogan. Bootleggers Dance.