INTERVIEW: Rep. Burgess Owens on MAHA, OBBB, and the NFL

While Rep. Burgess Owens (R., Utah) never took the Presidential Fitness Test himself as a child, the Super Bowl winning lawmaker is ecstatic to see the Trump administration bringing it back.

As a child, Owens instead had the Burgess Owens family fitness test, which included an isometric bar above his bedroom door, a speed bag in his basement, and a lot of physical activity.

While he can “say with all confidence” that he can’t go toe-to-toe in the new workout challenge from Secretaries Pete Hegseth and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Utahn thinks it’s about time Americans took their physical health seriously.

“If you physically control yourself, then you start applying the same thing to mental and spiritual levels, all those other things that really make us who we are, our character,” he told the Washington Reporter in an interview. “We can control those things.”

When Barack Obama was president, America ditched the Presidential Fitness Test “because [that] was a time in which they thought comparing yourself against your peers was body shaming and that it would lead to mental illness,” Owens said. The lawmaker even wrote a book about the matter, called Liberalism or How to Turn Good Men into Whiners, Weenies and Wimps.

“It’s typical of the left,” he explained. “Anything that deals with merit is something the left hates…You think about what goes into the idea of getting in shape, staying in shape, it’s discipline, vision, hard work, merit, all those things that the left hates.”

On both an individual and on societal levels, Owens wants to see more merit.

In contrast with the Obama administration, “what the Trump administration put in place was a system where you compete against each other, where you have individual merit, where you have individual goals.

“And guess what happened out of that? We became a better country,” Owens explained. “We embraced the fitness and left the fat behind us. And that comes down to working out, preparing ourselves and others to get better. That is what we do best. We compete, we believe in that process. And by the way, that same concept goes into our ideals of other dreams about building a business. It's about building our families. It's all about discipline and working hard.”

The importance of work translates directly to the GOP’s top legislative priority, the One Big, Beautiful Bill (OBBB), which Owens championed in Congress.

During congressional recess, he met with his constituents and reported back that “the One Big, Beautiful Bill is truly helping Utah in every aspect of what it's meant to be.”

“When we talk about the tenants that make our country what it is, like faith, family, the free market, education, that is Utah,” he said. “So anything that helps businesses grow, like making these tax breaks permanent, incentivizing having children by creating a savings account for them for the very first day of birth, when you start looking at bending the curve, so we're now bringing in tariff income that will replace, at some point, the income tax, those are huge wins.”

While the bill included significant wins for school choice, a longtime priority of Owens’s, he’s eager to continue working with the Senate to champion the cause even further.

Owens, a top Republican on the House’s Committee on Education and the Workforce, said that with school coming back in session, he is excited about the progress that the Trump administration has thus far made on reforming higher education.

“I’ll tell you what I love about this leadership that he has, and the way he's putting things together around him is that he cares about our country, and he understands that we have nefarious elements to deal with,” he said. “We have people in this country who have been working against us, and part of that is putting into our educational system an ideology that is against everything we stand for. So the fact is, we're going to continue to find those bad actors in our own country who are trying to turn our kids into Marxists, who are trying to give our enemies an advantage over us. There are people here in our country trying to do that to us, and we can identify that and make sure that our taxpayers are only going to institutions that help our kids grow.”

“If they can't do that,” he warned, “if they can't compete that arena, you need to find funds elsewhere, but it will not be from taxpayers, and that being said, it's going to allow that competition, that merit base, to stand high above everything else, and our kids will benefit from it, that is for sure.”

He is also a fan of what he called Trump’s moves to “hold colleges accountable for what they’re supposed to do.”

Across America, the Trump administration is using every lever of government possible to force colleges to drastically overhaul their systems — and in many cases, the administration is extracting gigantic settlements.

“I like what we’re doing right now,” Owens said. “Institutions need to make the promise to show that they're going to improve their process moving forward.”

“Now, what that means, in a lot of cases, is that they're gonna have to fire some people. They're gonna fire people who do not believe in the American way, those who have led this anti-American, anti-Semitic process,” Owens continued. “They're gonna let them go. If they don't, that's fine, but we don't have to pay for those kind of folks.”

Both school and the National Football League (NFL) are rapidly approaching, and Owens is not a fan of the NFL’s continued push for social justice measures. In fact, he wants a new NFL Commissioner.

“Fire the commissioner,” he said. “We have a problem. We have the left running this corporation, and unfortunately, with the NFL, they have their inner bubble, because so much money that comes in from TV, from entertainment, and people just will not give up the NFL…I will never forget what the NFL has done to us.”

“I will never forget when it had players kneeling when our flag was flying and confusing our young people about what our country stands for, so I haven't watched the NFL for six years. I will not watch the NFL, I will not watch football games,” Owens said.

Since Owens has not watched football in years, he isn’t up to date on his former teams, like the Las Vegas Raiders, who recently drafted Ashton Jeanty, although he is hopeful that the Raiders will “come back one day.”

Because at the end of the day, Owens thinks his old friend, Andy Reid, has what it takes to win year-in, year-out. Chalk Owens up to thinking that Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs will win it all next year.

Below is a transcript of our interview with Rep. Burgess Owens, lightly edited for clarity.

Washington Reporter:

Congressman Owens, thanks for chatting today. The Trump administration recently announced plans to reinstate the Presidential Fitness Test. What are your thoughts on that?

Rep. Burgess Owens:

I'm very excited to see that coming back as part of our national conversation. And, you know, Matthew, it's interesting, because I can remember as a kid, when I was around 12-15 years old, it began to be a big deal back then. I can still remember seeing this young man on tv commercials without a shirt on doing sit ups, doing push ups. It motivated young, and I remember my dad putting an isometric bar in my bedroom doorway. It's motivating to see other young people doing that, pushing themselves, getting in shape, and, of course, the country appreciates it, because then we can start thinking about individually and the importance of individual fitness.

Washington Reporter:

So you did not have the actual Presidential Fitness Test when you were growing up?

Rep. Burgess Owens:

I never took the test, but it was being pushed on tv. In those days, I had cable. Everybody saw it. Because I saw this in our own home, we decided to go and start doing things like that.

Washington ReporterL

So you had the Burgess Owens family fitness test, which is probably even more rigorous.

Rep. Burgess Owens:

I had the isometric bar on my bedroom door. That's what kind of got me going. I think everybody just wanted to be in shape. We believed in competing against each other, wrestling against each other. So all that was important and I just kind of get caught up in it, and it was a very good thing for me, obviously.

Washington Reporter:

This reminds me of the book that you wrote called Liberalism: How to Turn Good Men into Whiners, Weenies and Wimps. There’s some revulsion that we're seeing from some on the left at this return to physical fitness. What do you make of that?

Rep. Burgess Owens:

It’s typical of the left. Think about why Obama ended this program years ago — because there was a time in which they thought comparing yourself against your peers was body shaming and that it would lead to mental illness. In other words, anything that deals with merit is something the left hates, and particularly when it comes down to the merit, things that help us to gain confidence in ourselves, when we push ourselves, when we set a schedule, we have goals that push past our limitations at that moment. And that's what our country comes down to. You think about what goes into the idea of getting in shape, staying in shape, it’s discipline, vision, hard work, merit, all those things that the left hates. I really grew up because of the opportunity to discipline myself. I was extremely shy when I was a kid, but I gained my confidence by doing something I could control. I could control working out. I could control pushing one more time in a push up or a weight. I could control that. I couldn't control at that time, my confidence and my ability to speak to people, but the one thing I could do is physically control my actions and that actually takes you to another level, where you if you physically control yourself, then you start applying the same thing to mental and spiritual levels, all those other things that really make us who we are, our character. We can control those things.

Washington Reporter:

You wrote that book almost ten years ago. What has changed in America between then and now when it comes to how we approach fitness?

Rep. Burgess Owens:

I think I can imagine the biggest change. Our country has these pendulum swings. We get very comfortable, because it's easy to get that way within a country that believes in dreaming. So we get very comfortable, get very focused on what we have to get done and on our own personal thing, and forget the basics that makes our country what it is, and it's really hard work. It's being uncomfortable. It's having tough decisions or discussions when it comes down to our thoughts, it’s realizing that when you're working out, you have to fail to get better. Part of this is the idea of physically getting where discipline is, part of the process gets us back to doing the same things when it comes down to everything else we have to do to move ourselves forward, physical discipline, spiritual discipline, being disciplined. We talk with people who don't agree with that. We can actually control our emotions, all those things come from this place of ‘I can control myself,’ and that starts, I believe, when you control your physical self, then everything else kind of leans in and follows that process.

Washington Reporter:

You were just talking about this physical discipline. Did you see the push that we're seeing from Secretary Hegseth and from Secretary Kennedy of this insane five minute workout? Do you think that you've still got what it takes to compete on that?

Rep. Burgess Owens:

I can say with all confidence that I do not. I would not get out there now. I have my own regiment. But I respect men like RFK who are showing that they are still pushing themselves and showing that, ‘guess what, guys, if I can do this, you can do this.’ You don't have to do the same amount. You don't have to be in the same kind of physical shape, but you can get better. It's just the little things we're talking about. What does it take to do 100 push ups or 50 pull ups? And for those who still have that competitive edge, guess what's going to happen? You can see them going to the gym and seeing what they can do in five minutes. That's what comes out of this process. We have that competitive nature in ourselves. And I would say the downside of the Obama era is that they're trying to take away the competitive merit-based process. They're trying to say that us competing against each other was a bad thing, and what the Trump administration put in place was a system where you compete against each other, where you have individual merit, where you have individual goals. And guess what happened out of that? We became a better country. We embraced the fitness and left the fat behind us. And that comes down to working out, preparing ourselves and others get better. That is what we do best. We compete, we believe in that process. And by the way, that same concept goes into our ideals of other dreams about building a business. It's about building our families. It's all about discipline and working hard.

Washington Reporter:

Back in your day, in the heyday of your athletic career, what was the athletic feat that you are most amazed by?

Rep. Burgess Owens:

That’s a good question. When I was in 10th grade, I had a fight, and my dad decided, because he saw that I did not have hand speed, he put a speed bag in the basement. And I got to where I got so good at that speed bag, that when I went to the pros with the Raiders, it fully paid off. Muscle memory is number one, but speed, concentration, all those things are important. I would say that one exercise, that one gift that my dad gave to me when I was in 10th grade, allowed me to truly gain a lot more skill sets when it came down to being a defensive back or a receiver. And then, of course, that helped me to go into the pros. Little things sometimes are not obvious. As long as you're committed to it, you focus on your work, and you get good at it, at some point it's going to show up for you.

Washington Reporter:

The school year is starting up soon, and you've been working on school choice for years. We've talked about that in the past. That was a big priority in the One Big, Beautiful Bill. What do you see coming next on that issue as far as your work is concerned?

Rep. Burgess Owens:

That was a remarkable bill; we put together a lot of good things that happened, some things we want to improve on, but I would say that of all of the foundation that I think is probably most essential to the OBBB is our choice bill, because we have to have our kids educated. If we can’t get to a place where we can teach our kids how to think, how to converse with each other, how to articulate themselves, how to dream bigger, to appreciate who we are, to take this legacy on, we'll lose it all from within. This choice bill is important, and the reason why the left doesn't want it to happen is because they want our kids to be hopeless, to be dejected, dreamless. They love that because it gives them more power. What we're saying is this: every parent should have a chance to look at their child and say ‘you know what? I'm going to give you the best opportunity to run circles around me when you grow up.’ Parents want to say to their kids ‘I put you in a school where you can prosper, you can grow, you'll be excited, and your talents will be able to be seen by you and others.’ That's what every parent wants to give to their child, and parents know what school is best for their kids. So it makes sense for many of us. It is hard to believe that there are people who do not want our kids to prosper because they are already doing well. They don't care about others. I'm so excited about working with the Senate on this choice bill, and it has been remarkable to expand it out so that everybody can experience it as we move forward and get better at it.

Washington Reporter:

As you are looking at higher ed, one of the things that you've led the way on in particular is oversight into the more nefarious foreign funding into colleges. What are you looking at for colleges and universities when you come back from recess?

Rep. Burgess Owens:

We're looking forward to continuing to work with President Trump. I’ll tell you what I love about this leadership that he has, and the way he's putting things together around him is that he cares about our country, and he understands that we have nefarious elements to deal with. We have people in this country who have been working against us, and part of that is putting into our educational system an ideology that is against everything we stand for. So the fact is, we're going to continue to find those bad actors in our own country who are trying to turn our kids into Marxists, who are trying to give our enemies an advantage over us. There are people here in our country trying to do that to us, and we can identify that and make sure that our taxpayers are going to only institutions that help our kids grow. If they can't do that, if they can't compete that arena, you need to find funds elsewhere, but it will not be from taxpayers, and that being said, it's going to allow that competition, that merit base, to stand high above everything else, and our kids will benefit from it, that is for sure.

Washington Reporter:

What do you make of the Trump administration’s strategy on pressuring a lot of these colleges like UCLA and Columbia?

Rep. Burgess Owens:

I think first of all, he’s holding colleges accountable for what they're supposed to do, and we have unfortunately in our systems a lot of bureaucracy and no accountability. At the end of the day, the mission of these schools needs to be to teach our kids. A lot of these schools are teaching anti-American, anti-Semitic, materials, and they are sitting on billions of dollars in their endowments. Personally, I like what we’re doing right now. Institutions need to make the promise to show that they're going to improve their process moving forward. Now, what that means, in a lot of cases, is that they're gonna have to fire some people. They're gonna fire people who do not believe in the American way, those who have led this anti-American, anti-Semitic process. They're gonna let them go. If they don't, that's fine, but we don't have to pay for those kind of folks. So I'm excited about where we are. And keep in mind, we're only eight months in. It's amazing the things we've accomplished and the things we're seeing. And talk about this for the last eight months, and it's gonna get better the next two years. So I'm excited about that, too.

Washington Reporter:

My last policy question before a little bit of football is that as you've been going around your district, what else have you heard from your constituents about the significance of the One Big, Beautiful Bill's passage for them?

Rep. Burgess Owens:

When we talk about the tenants that make our country what it is, like faith, family, the free market, education, that is Utah. So anything that helps businesses grow, like making these tax breaks permanent, incentivizing having children by creating a savings account for them for the very first day of birth, when you start looking at bending the curve, so we're now bringing in tariff income that will replace, at some point, the income tax, those are huge wins. The One Big, Beautiful Bill is truly helping Utah in every aspect of what it's meant to be. Some things we didn't get done all the way through, but as we continue to show success, the American people will reward us for that with more power.

Washington Reporter:

We are obviously on the cusp of the NFL coming up. I assume that you saw that teams will be required to have some sort of social justice message in end zones again. What do you think it will take to get rid of that?

Rep. Burgess Owens:

A new NFL Commissioner. Fire the commissioner. We have a problem. We have the left running this corporation, and unfortunately, with the NFL, they have their inner bubble, because so much money that comes in from TV, from entertainment, and people just will not give up the NFL. They know that. So they're very cocky. They're very entitled. They think they can do anything they want to, and they will not pay the price, because they think we're going to forget. I will never forget what the NFL has done to us. I will never forget when it had players kneeling when our flag was flying and confusing our young people about what our country stands for, so I haven't watched the NFL for six years. I will not watch the NFL, I will not watch football games, that's just me, but different Americans will feel the same way I do, and we're tired of it. We're tired of the woke. We're tired of being attacked by leftists like Commissioner Roger Goodell, and they're going to pay a price at some point. That's just the American way. We don't know yet what that looks like. Normally, it takes competition, but at some point they will be held accountable, and I'm looking forward to seeing that day, and hopefully that day will mean that they have new leadership that will actually love our country again, the way the founding of the founders of the NFL did.

Washington Reporter:

You have previously told me you're not interested in being commissioner of the NFL when you're done with Congress. Is that still the case?

Rep. Burgess Owens:

Yes. You can take that one to the bank, buddy.

Washington Reporter:

If you had to have a message in the end zone, what would you want it to say? If they're going to require end zone messages, what would be a Burgess Owens approved one to have?

Rep. Burgess Owens:

Make America Great Again.

Washington Reporter:

I know you're not watching, but you still have a better eye for talent than most people in Congress, at a minimum. Who do you think is going to win the Super Bowl this year? I personally predict you're going to default to your Andy Reid fandom.

Rep. Burgess Owens:

The Super Bowl this year? I haven’t kept up. But I lived in Philadelphia for about 20 years, and Andy Reid is a good friend of mine. I have so much respect for the culture that he puts in place. I am an Andy Reid fan. And of course, I love the Raiders because I came out of that, I hope one day they can come back too. Wherever Andy goes, I'm going to be a number one supporter.

Washington Reporter:

Have you seen the Raiders’ new running back, Ashton Jeanty?

Rep. Burgess Owens:

I just don't follow what happens; once you get out of the habit of following what happens, it’s hard to go back. At some point you’re so far behind, you can't even talk about it any more, I just haven’t followed.

Washington Reporter:

Congressman Owens, thanks as always.