Former NFL player Burgess Owens said Tuesday that members of the Philadelphia Eagles who plan to snub the White House are misguided.

Owens, who played 10 seasons for the New York Jets and Oakland Raiders during the 1970s and 1980s, singled out Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins.

“Years from now, he’ll look back and regret the fact that he didn’t take the moment, because it’s not going to happen again,” Owens said on “The Laura Ingraham Show.”

Owens said Jenkins’ anger is misplaced.

“He’s protesting the wrong president,” he told guest host Raymond Arroyo. “It was President [Barack] Obama who had problems with black unemployment, with lack of education, with lack of opportunities and misery.”

Three other members of the Super Bowl champion Eagles have also suggested they will decline invitations to make the customary journey to the White House following a major sports championship — defensive end Chris Long, running back LeGarrette Blount, and wide receiver Torrey Smith. All four protesting players already had won Super Bowls with other teams.

Owens attributed their defiance to a lack of life experience.

“These guys are young people,” he said. “They’re making lots of money. They have all the answers. I was there. I know how it feels. Later on, when life really happens, you got to understand that it’s the socialists and the Democrats that have been against our race, not President Trump.”

Since retiring from the NFL in 1983, Owens has been an outspoken author and public speaker. In 2016, he wrote “Liberalism or How to Turn Good Men into Whiners, Weenies and Wimps.”

The NFL just concluded perhaps its most controversial and politically charged season, with dozens of players drawing the ire of Trump and millions of fans by kneeling in protest during the national anthem. But Owens noted that no one on either team took a knee during Super Bowl LII.

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Arroyo suggested the players were passing up an opportunity to raise their concerns with the president.

“That would be a good answer if they were trained to think that way,” he said. “You have to understand what’s going on behind the curtain. We’re dealing with an environment in which these young people are not taught to come up with these kinds of solutions or critical thinking. They’re taught to demonstrate, to resist, to fight and to be angry.”

Owens said such reactions demonstrate the pathology infecting many communities.

“My suggestion is that Americans recognize that behind the curtain, within these communities, Marxists and socialists are destroying the lives of these young people,” he said.

Related: President Donald Trump Wins the National Anthem Debate

The reaction stands in stark contrast to other members of the team, such as quarterback Nick Foles, who have attributed their success to God.

But there is hope, Owens said — pointing to a Super Bowl that stayed free from the divisiveness that marked the regular season.

“It was such a great experience to watch the NFL, watch that game from the very beginning to end and the experience of seeing the flag, the national anthem, those great military people,” he said. “Just a good end of the season, to say the least, to wrap up the right way.”

PoliZette senior writer Brendan Kirby can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter.