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A
Search for Truth
by Kelly L. Martinez
Burgess Owens
In
theory, athletics is an excellent arena for missionary work. A mixture
of athletes from various backgrounds unite in the pursuit of athletic
excellence, which can provide participants with opportunities to
discuss things that are more important than the sport they share.
Good and bad examples are available to emulate and associate with
in the sporting world. Mostly, players will gravitate toward others
that are most like them -- ones that share common beliefs and values.
Such was the case on the Oakland Raiders in 1982, when free safety
Burgess Owens and tight end Todd Christensen were teammates and,
eventually, instruments in the Lord’s hands.
Super
Ending
The New York Jets selected Burgess Owens in the first round
of the 1973 NFL Draft out of the University of Miami. After seven
seasons with the Jets, Owens was traded to Oakland prior to the
1980 season. That season, the Raiders, led by aging quarterback
Jim Plunkett, became the first-ever wild-card team to win the Super
Bowl, defeating the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl XIV. Owens
was a starter on that team and led the team in tackles.
Burgess Owens in Super Bowl XIV
Shortly after
his arrival in Oakland, Owens and teammate Todd Christensen became
friends, finding that they had much in common. “I was impressed
by the way he lived his life,” said Owens. “I liked
him, but we had never discussed the gospel and that was the way
I wanted to keep it.”
Donny and Marie,
whom he found to be boring, was about all that Owens knew of the
Church. “In high school,” he remembered, “someone
once told me that Mormons didn’t like blacks. That was about
the only exposure I had with Mormons.”
That minimal
exposure began to change when Owens and his wife Josi were
invited to the Todd and Kathy Christensen home for Thanksgiving
dinner in 1982. (This experience was
mentioned in the Oct. 4 Meridian Sports article on Todd Christensen)
An Open
Invitation
On July 4, 1982, Burgess and Josi made a conscious decision and
asked the Lord to come into their lives. They had investigated several
churches by the time they had Thanksgiving dinner at the Christensen
home, and were quite impressed with the LDS missionaries that were
at the Christensen home that day. “We had the chance to go
to another friend’s house,” Burgess recalled, “but
we chose to go to Todd and Kathy’s house instead. We met the
missionaries for the first time that night, but we didn’t
talk about the gospel at all. We spoke about the responsibility
of having a family. That was something I had a passion for. I remember
being so impressed by those young men. I found them to be very insightful
for being so young.”
A couple of
weeks later, Josi stopped by to visit Kathy, found the same two
elders there, and was invited to church. “When the opportunity
came, Kathy asked my wife those important questions: ‘Have
you ever thought about where you came from and where you’re
going?’” said Burgess. “Josi, and I, had thought
about it. But we didn’t have the answers.”
When Josi reported
to her husband the positive experience she had had at church with
Kathy, she asked if he would be interested in attending with her.
He was interested and, by chance, the Raiders were to play on Monday
Night Football the following week, which allowed him to attend with
his wife. “We were pretty much a missionary’s dream,”
Burgess said. “We had been looking for the truth and we had
found it.”
Things progressed
smoothly from there … until just before the baptism.
The
Second Step
“Just before baptism, I was having some real problems with
the priesthood issue,” said Burgess. “I wanted to know
why blacks weren’t allowed to hold the priesthood for so long.
I've always looked at myself in two ways: I've always wanted to
do what's right, whether it was popular or not, and I have never
wanted to do anytyhing to disparage my race. I'm very proud of my
background. It was something I had to work through.”
Burgess remembers
staying up late one night searching the scriptures for answers to
his problem. At about 4 a.m., Josi called Kathy and told her about
the problems Burgess was facing. Kathy woke her husband and sent
him to the Owens home. “I remember seeing Todd come walking
in with his arms loaded with books,” remembered Burgess. “We
sat and talked for awhile, but I still hadn’t found the answer
I was looking for.”
The answer came
later that night when the Owens’ and Christensens were having
dinner with the stake mission president. “He said something
that night that really had an impact on me,” said Burgess.
“I don’t think he knew what I was going through, but
at one point during the evening, he turned to Josi and said, ‘It’s
really interesting the way the Lord works. He’ll give you
enough of what you’re looking for to take the first step,
then He expects you to take the second step on faith.’ That
statement has been with me ever since.
"I had
seen enough of the gospel to know that it was good. So I took the
next step on faith. If I can feel that something is good, but I
don't have all the answers, and there is enough to go on, my faith
is always rewarded with whatever answers I need. Those questions
that kind of slowed me down back then, I feel extremely confident
about now."
New
Beginnings
On December 31, 1982, at about 10 p.m., Burgess and Josi Owens were
baptized. Burgess and Josi returned to their home in New York and
got to attend the gospel principles class one time before he was
called to teach the 14-year-olds Sunday School class. “I asked
if they were sure they had the right guy because I didn’t
know much,” Burgess said. “As it turned out, that’s
where I learned. As I studied the lessons to teach to them, it helped
to strengthen my own testimony.”
Sharing their
testimony of the gospel is something the Owens’ have done
since the day they were baptized. Close friends that had attended
their baptism included Burgess' teammates Matt Millen and Vann McElroy.
Josi’s mom, some of her aunts, and Burgess’ brother
have all joined the Church since. Several of Burgess’ friends
have likewise accepted the gospel. “At a fireside a few weeks
ago,” he said, “I came across one of those friends whom
I hadn’t seen in 10 years. It was so nice to see that he was
still active in the Church and had a strong testimony.”
Life
after Football
“What I realized after I left football,” said Burgess,
“is that they stopped paying me. So, I got involved earning
money in other ways.” Burgess has been in and around the corporate
world since he retired from pro football in 1983. Currently, he
owns his own e-commerce and Internet business. Previously, he was
the CEO of a Web development company in West Chester, Penn., where
he and Josi live with four of their six children: Brett,
16, Blair, 14, Bree, 10, and Blake,
8. The older children, Summer, 22, is an intern
with the Oakland Raiders’ community relations department,
and Randii, 18, is attending BYU. Brett, the only
boy, is quite a football player and is hoping to play ball in college.
The Owens Family
Though football
was a big part of his life, Burgess doesn’t follow it that
much. "I don’t follow sports too much," he said.
"I’m too busy to watch and find that I am much more productive
if I’m doing other things. Playing football was a good chapter
in my life, but when it was time to move on, I just closed the book.
Actually, Josi and Brett are the avid football fans in the our home.
They love their Eagles, their Raiders and Miami Hurricanes."
Proper
Perspective
It was the concept of the family that drew the Owens’ to the
gospel. Their family began its eternal formation when Burgess and
Josi were sealed in the Washington, D.C. Temple in 1984. “As
we grew and began to understand what the gospel is all about,”
Burgess said, “we have come to be very excited about the fact
that the family is an eternal unit. The relationships we have here
on earth will always be with us.”
His acclimation
to the LDS way of life was not difficult. “I think I was born
to be LDS,” he said. “I’ve been very fortunate
with the wards I’ve been in since joining the Church. We’ve
come across some very good people. I’ve heard it’s not
that way everywhere in the Church, and that’s unfortunate.
What I’ve come to learn is that though the Church is perfect,
the people in the Church aren’t. People will always make mistakes;
we’re all growing. What I do is give people room. The gospel
itself is always at work and the Lord has a plan for all of us.
I’ll never get those two facts confused. Somebody might make
a mistake or not have the right attitude, but I know it’s
an individual problem, something that the gospel can help me and
him through. We all have our growth to go through.”
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