Global Super Bowl stage for Houston-based innovator

Fact - Houston knows football and knows it well.

Also a fact - Houston knows flooding, a chronic problem that seems to get worse with every new square foot of concrete poured.

It's a stubborn challenge that triggered a locally-conceived innovation, a breakthrough that's set to get plenty of attention thanks to the gridiron's greatest game.

"Made a better mouse trap, made it Texas size and went for it," said longtime Houston resident, inventor of TRUEGRID.

The TRUEGRID technology involves a flood-battling, Lego-like paving system, well-suited for cities that tend to get soggy.

"A TRUEGRID paver is a hundred percent pervious," explains Stiles. "It lets the water drain right through. It's made from recycled, post-consumer, high-density polyethylene, so it's inert."

Here's how it works: the super-strong pavers are linked together, grid by grid, on flat ground and then filled with gravel, creating a durable virtually, floodproof surface with a compression capacity of sixty tons per square foot.

"What we've got is close to 600,000 milk jugs that have been converted into a parking lot," says Stiles. And not just any lot.

You'll find True Grid beneath the stream of Mercedes Benzes, BMWs and Bentleys at Club Nomadic. It's a 60,000-square foot venue with 60,000 square feet of TRUEGRID paving to go with it, all installed within just 10 days.

For an innovator looking to show off, it's a rare and potentially-powerful opportunity.

"A national stage and exposure -- we can't buy that, that's for sure, so it's a home run or a touchdown for us really," says Stiles with a smile.

It is a potent example of how Super Bowl LI will likely produce more than one winner.