Following football, Owens acquired a Series 7 license and was a financial advisor for three years with Merrill Lynch. But that wasn’t really doing it for him. And so he decided to become a lawyer, and earned his Juris Doctorate at the University of California at San Francisco – Hastings School of Law.

“After I graduated from law school, I went down to Brazil and was helping my friend start his business, a sports management company with soccer,” Owens said. “And when I came back in 2000, I worked for the first XFL, for the San Francisco Demons (as the Director of Football Operations), and that shut down after a year and a half.”

Following football for a second time, Owens would concentrate on law, specifically workers’ compensation cases for professional sports-related injuries.

“It was really fortuitous because I went to a sports lawyers conference in Phoenix and saw the attorney that did my case with workers’ comp,” Owens said. “I pitched him for a job and he said, ‘No.’ But the guy that was next to him, worked for the insurance companies that he opposed, he heard my story and hired me.

“So it was just really by chance that I got into it. Even though I was trying to work on a player’s side at the beginning, the insurance side hired me first.”

A founding partner of NBO Law in 2006, Owens specializes in representing professional athletes regarding injuries, disability benefits, and workers’ compensation. And when he sees he has made a difference in a client’s life…

“Oh, it’s the best because these guys are my friends and my peers, my contemporaries. I’m just like them,” Owens said. “When I’m working on their case, it’s like working on my case. So it makes me feel good and proud and the fact that I can do something for them.”

As a linebacker, Owens has been on the line of scrimmage and faced men who were trying to get past him and into the end zone.

As a lawyer, he has been in courtrooms and faced judges who would decide the fate of his clients.

And now as the star of ABC’s The Golden Bachelor, which makes its season premiere on September 24, Owens, 66, will be facing 23 women aged 58 to 77, who are all vying for his attention in hopes that they’ll get married and live happily ever after.

“A friend of mine called and said he had a friend that was looking for somebody for The Bachelor series,” Owens said. “I didn’t really know too much about it and how it worked. I’ve seen The Bachelor, obviously, but not about the casting work. So I didn’t call and he kept on bugging me and saying, ‘You’ve got to call her!’ So I called.

“And then from there, one thing led to another and I kept getting interviewed. You have to go through the process of casting and see if you’re the right person. They have to know your background and those types of things.

“Then finally, I was casted. So it wasn’t something that I signed up for, or a friend of mine or my son did. It was something that came to me through another channel.”

Did the thought of being on ABC channels across the country and sharing his life with millions of strangers ever cause Owens to be a little apprehensive?

“Well, anybody can just Google me, right? I’ve led a pretty interesting life, in my opinion. I’ve done a lot of different things and I’ve always been up to doing new things,” Owens said. “I was recently divorced and wanted to see if I could find someone that was compatible with me because I hadn’t dated in a while.

“My sons, Lucas and Andre, they’re older now. They’re more independent, driving, and in college and high school. So it was something that I wanted to explore. I came in with an open mind and an open heart to see what would happen. And I’m looking for someone that I can spend my life with.”