NERDS AROUND TOWN

Nerds Around Town: Texans, porn stars, and The Legion of Super-Heroes

ART BY JESUS RODRIGUEZ

Born with a comic book in one hand and a remote control in the other, Cory DLG is the talent of Conroe's very own Nerd Thug Radio and Sports. Check out the podcast replay of the FM radio show at www.nerdthugradio.com!

The week is winding down and we're coming up on the weekend, you ready?

GOOD DEED OF THE DAY

Last week while talking about the Gulf Coast Blood Center, the good people reached out to me and pointed me to another awesome thing they're doing so I thought I'd bring it to your attention now. The Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center is working with Team Liquid through the year and eligible people can win an Alienware Aurora Computer valued at $800. The campaign is called Heal For Real, and I like it. Get involved today.

OVERWATCH UPDATES

I haven't written about the Overwatch League lately because it was going very well for Houston and I didn't want to jinx it but the last few weeks have turned against them and we're back to our losing ways. After making the playoffs in Stage 3, we are now tied for 17th out of 20 in this Stage and are basically done for the year. The team has gone through a lot, including being sold twice, the ownership sold to a group that already owned an Overwatch team and therefore they agreed to run The Outlaws until they could find a new ownership group for them. They were sold again for $40 million dollars about a month ago and since then the losing has picked up again.

DALLAS ISN'T ALONE

The Texans can't figure out how to resolve the Clowney problem. Essentially what it boils down to is that now because they have missed the date to negotiate a long term deal with Clowney who has a franchise tag offer currently unsigned, he has a rather untradeable contract number. The goal now sounds like they are looking for offensive tackles and they would trade Clowney for the tackle who hopefully has a similar contract number. The problem is there aren't a lot of high priced tackles that teams are looking to trade away, mostly because high valued tackles are a lot like high value pass rushers, they're hard to come by. While plenty of teams would love to have Clowney for the right price, they might not be able to accommodate the roughly $16 million dollar cap charge for this season even if they had players to give up in a trade. This is a mess.

THE RETURN OF LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES

DC Comics and mega star writer Brian Michael Bendis are on the verge of bringing back one of the oldest and most confusing franchises in DC comics, The Legion of Super-Heroes. The massive team of super powered teens from across the universe, who work to keep the year 31st century safe by protecting the entire collection of United Planets. Because the team is based out of the future, their story has been restarted a couple of times due to large events during the history of various DC events. Changing costumes and characters and line ups and the stories that are told, the Legion has had several different looks and themes over the years. It's been several years since they've been featured and their last run ended quietly and there was a peep of some of these characters when DC did the Rebirth launch by having a few members of the team stranded in current times, however they never followed up with any of those storylines.

NOT THAT YOU ASKED

Former porn actress Mia Khalifa revealed that in the three months she made adult films, she only earned about $12,000. Which isn't a lot of money and the notoriety has been linked to her forever. While she has been able to pivot all of this into a career of sorts as a "famous person" like so many others these days, she stated how limiting it had been job wise. Now I've seen before where she's bailed on interviews or gotten upset because they mention the adult films in her intro pre interview and honestly, I was always exasperated with her. It's the thing that kind of "broke" her into the scene and made it possible to write about whatever else she was doing or promoting at the time because she was already a "known" quantity and that's how this game works in a lot of ways. I don't have Johnny on the street on my radio show, I have people with a value to our topic on the show and those are going to be people established or relevant in some way. The thing that broke her in was adult films and honestly the better and more honest advice is embrace and pivot which it looks like she is finally doing. Good luck Mia.

Feel free to check out my brand new comic book Another Day at the Office or buy a shirt from Side Hustle Ts where some proceeds help people struggling with cancer or listen to Nerd Thug Radio. Thoughts, complaints, events and comments can be sent to corydlg@gmail.com.

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Keep an eye on Tank Dell this Sunday. Photo by Alex Bierens de Haan/Getty Images.

I remember thinking how in the world can these little frail guys survive at the NFL level? I mean, I saw Joe Theismann and Ed McCaffrey's legs snap. Drew Bledsoe got his chest caved in. Seeing 300-plus pound men cry when injured is humbling. So when a guy like Tank Dell comes along, I'm always a bit apprehensive. Especially when they come with a ton of hype.

For every eight to ten big strong players that get hurt, there's one or two little fellas that have relatively healthy careers. The comp that came to mind when looking at Tank was DeSean Jackson. Listed at 5'10 and weighing a heavy 175 pounds, Jackson was arguably the best “small guy” in NFL history. Dell being about two inches shorter and about ten pounds lighter, while also playing a similar role, is in line to be a similarly electrifying type of player. I put my assessment on the line and doubled down with my predictions on what his, and others' season totals will look like last week:

Tank Dell: 68 catches, 1,105 yards and 6 touchdowns- Dell will be a really good slot, but has some outside skills. Namely, his speed. He's more slippery than if Mick had greased that chicken before Rocky tried catching it. I could see his production going up as the season gets longer because Stroud will begin to look for him more and more as they build chemistry. Yes, I know I only have him with six scores. Keep in mind this is a run first offense. At least that's what we can deduce from looking at where it came from in San Francisco.

In his debut game last week vs the Ravens, he notched three catches for 34 yards on four targets. He was tied for third on the team in targets with Noah Brown and Mike Boone. While Robert Woods and Nico Collins were one and two in targets last week, I think Dell will ascend that list starting this week. Word came down that Noah Brown is headed to IR, meaning he'll miss at least the next four weeks. The chemistry he and fellow rookie C.J. Stroud have developed is palpable. From working out together, to attending UH games together, these two seem to have a nice bond already.

Woods is a solid vet two years removed from an ACL injury. Collins was a third rounder with size who hasn't done a whole lot. Dell is easily the most exciting option at receiver this team has. John Metchie III was expected to be the next guy up. Unfortunately, cancer had him take a backseat, until now. Metchie is back at practice this week, so a debut is imminent. He could potentially challenge for more playing time, but it may take him some time to get used to things and get going again.

As far as my statistical prediction for his season, he only needs to average four catches for 67 yards per game, and get a touchdown every two to three games for the remainder of the season. Given Brown being out the next few games, Metchie not quite being up to speed, Woods being an older player on a short-term deal, and Collins not really being what everyone thought he could be, it leaves things wide open for Dell to step up.

Playmakers come in all shapes and sizes. Levon Kirkland was a 300-pound middle linebacker in a 3-4. Doug Flutie led teams to playoff wins as a 5'9 quarterback. In football, size matters. The bigger, stronger guys normally win out. When it comes to receiving and returns, you want speed, quickness, and agility. Dell has that in spades. Add his competitive nature and chemistry with his quarterback and you have a recipe for a star in the making. I know I'm not the only one hoping the Texans continue Tank-ing.

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