Journalist Issues Apology After Referring To Simone Biles As NFL Wife’ In Headline About Her Recent Health Scare

Simone Biles, Jonathan Owens

Journalist Issues Apology After Referring To Simone Biles As NFL Wife’ In Headline About Her Recent Health Scare

In life, you have to be able to admit your faults.

#SimoneBiles recently made headlines after revealing that she “almost d!ed.” While she chose not to go into full detail about what happened, she did share that she’s now back home and recovering after what she called the “scariest experience” of her life. She also noted that her husband, NFL player #JonathanOwens, being away made the situation scarier. One story covering the ordeal raised eyebrows after referring to the Olympic gold medalist as an “NFL Wife” in its headline — and the backlash was immediate.

Addressing the criticism head-on, the journalist behind the piece issued an apology, took full responsibility, and explained, “I write for an NFL website and during the off-season we often times find any topics to write about that is even remotely correlated with the NFL. …The SEO keyword I used for that article was NFL. That is quite literally the only reason why I used that title. Never in one million years did I think it was coming off as disrespectful.” Veteran journalist and correspondent #JemeleHill also weighed in, noting that writers don’t always have final say over headlines and that multiple factors can come into play before a story is published.