I saw a newspaper headline that said: Rodgers owns he is lacking. It was in the sports section, and I know that Rodgers is the manager of the England football team (for Americans, that's 'soccer coach'). Since I was not interested I read no further.

What intrigued me was the use of the word owns to mean "admits". I've seen it used that way occasionally, but usually the phrasal verb owns up would be used. Presumably some headline writer was short on space and used the four-letter 'owns' instead of the six-letter 'admits'.

There are other uses too, of course; see Oxford Dictionaries.

Rare, yes, yet the meaning is clear to me.

I think, though, that arnie's use of "own" like that (not "owning up" but just to "own" your behavior or something) is becoming more common. I hadn't heard it used that way until a few years ago.