Advertisement

arts entertainmentTV

Here's how an ex-Dallas Cowboys signee-turned-astronaut influenced ABC's BattleBots title bout

It took a former Dallas Cowboys signee to decide which fighting robot would win the BattleBots championship shown Sunday on ABC.

When fighting robots Bite Force and Tombstone finished a vicious 3-minute match in the final, Leland Melvin was one of three judges called upon to render the final decision.

Bite Force, which is a grappler-style bot created by Aptyx Designs of Mountain View, Calif.,...
Bite Force, which is a grappler-style bot created by Aptyx Designs of Mountain View, Calif., is the 2015 BattleBot champ. (Facebook/Aptyx Designs)

Melvin, who signed as a free agent with the Cowboys in 1987 but never played a down, conferred with Jessica Chobot and Fon Davis and declared Bite Force the winner and  recipient of The Giant Nut.

Tombstone came as the 16-team tournament's No. 1 seed. But Bite Force, a grappler-style bot created by Aptyx Designs of Mountain View, Calif., kept its distance from Tombstone's spinning blade and got in a few shots of its own.

Tombstone, a bar spinner bot built by Hardcore Robotics in Placerville, Calif., still showed damage from its semifinal victory over a bot called Bronco. In its semifinal, Bite Force defeated Ghost Raptor.

Advertisement

Back to Melvin: In 1986, he was an 11th-round draft choice by the Detroit Lions out of Richmond. A receiver, he pulled his hamstring in training camp and was released. The Cowboys signed him as a free agent, but he failed his physical and didn't play.

News Roundups

Catch up on the day's news you need to know.

Or with:

In 1989, he started working at NASA. In 1998, he was selected to be an astronaut. He was aboard Shuttle Atlantis flights in 2008 and 2009. His space career ended when he went deaf  during an underwater training exercise.

He's dabbled in reality television with appearances on Bravo's Top Chef, Travel Channel's Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern and Nat Geo Wild's The Dog Whisperer.

Advertisement

Will Leland be back for a season two of BattleBots? Obviously, it will depend on whether BattleBots will be back in ABC's lineup.

ABC picked up the show for a six-episode run, ending BattleBots' 13-year television absence . Last week, the show lost its time slot for the second time as Fox's UFC Fight Night was the night's Nielsen winner.

Two weeks ago, show creator Greg Munson said he was optimistic about the show's renewal.

Advertisement

"If we're back for season 2, we'll fine tune even more with more robots," he said. "We'll just keep elevating."