Why the HDL is the Greatest Fantasy League in Existence

Michael Altbaum
Jul 23, 2017 · 5 min read

Let’s Start With the Name: The Heinbail Dynasty League. Matt Heinbaugh was an owner of an original team during the startup draft — that’s it. He drafted and left without saying a word, bailing on an entire dynasty league minutes upon drafting a solid team. Fortunately for the league, a more active owner would take his place and accept the temporary name of ‘New Heinbaugh.’ Thus, the Heinbail Dynasty League adopted the only name it was destined to have. Just as logically as the HDL name came to fruition and the name for its championship as well, the Heinbowl. Now I know what you are thinking, “These names are incredibly perfect.” And to that, my friend, I would say that you are correct. Almost as perfect as our customized and unique logo. A logo with meaning.

A dozen stripes to represent the teams as well as a football field divided by 10 yard lines. A line dividing the bottom and top of the shield that doubles as opposing arrows representing the plethora of trades made and to be made. A crown on top for obvious reasons and not so obvious reasons. The three prongs on this crown represent the three divisions with the crown jewel all the teams chase in the middle of them all.

So it’s just a dynasty football league with a cool name? Wrong! It is one of the most intense and active leagues you will ever find with 20 committed owners and co-owners with barely any turn over. In the unfortunate instance we had to make an owner change, the new owner was put through a fierce application process. They made campaign videos and slogans, they filled our difficult application out, and were questioned by everyone to find their commitment level. In 3 years, there have been 302 trades made. A 50-day trade drought was the longest the league has seen during one off season. That must be tough to track. With picks being traded that don’t belong to this decade, conditions on everything from player performance to pick position, and owners not knowing what picks they even own anymore, the job our commissioners do is astounding. If they ever bring this article up I’ll delete it and deny I ever said that because those guys suck! How does so much trade action go down? Possibly the 335,000+ messages that have been sent since we moved to Slack Messenger over a full year after the league started. (We originally started with emails so imagine roughly another 100k of them).

What’s included within the messages? Weekly newsletters, side bets and prop bets using Heinbucks, power rankings, yearly awards, team breakdowns, trade reactions, trash talk and much much more. One of our owner has made a full website that tracks teams, dynasty player values with a trade calculator and tons of other features. The only league with more media coverage and owner involvement is the NFL. The HDL and NFL.

Whats our draft like? Powerpoints, excel sheet breakdowns, twenty laptops, skyped video chat, people flying in from all over the country, are all included in the event. We have multiple draft-day trades and high pressure clock management. Not only do we have a draft each year, but we have a summit before the draft to discuss rules that we vote on to add, enhance, or eliminate. We discuss ways we can improve the league similar to the owners meeting in the NFL. Not only do we have a draft and a summit but we have second draft/auction. This is an auction style draft to cap off what is always a dramatic off season in the HDL. Our season, the HDL season, never gets an offseason.

We all compete to win THE BIG ONE. The Mug. Custom mugs that are engraved and shipped from Scandinavia are what each owner strives for. That, a nice bit of cash, and a whole lot of lifelong bragging rights. Not only does each winning owner get a custom mug to keep but they also receive the championship belt for the year. A belt that finds its way to every league function. As great as 1st place is, is about as bad as last place is. Consequences remain internal.

Other than the prizes, the difficulty level is what makes victory ever so sweet. Trades are necessary to acquire players; with 40 player rosters, requiring 14 starting spots, massive knowledge of the NFL is mandatory. Just Offense? NO! An individual defensive player roster demands you know both sides of the ball and we don’t start 1 or 2 or 3 players. We start 4 IDP players. You can expect no good players on the free agency wire either. Expect the equivalent to a can of beans. In the rare instances a good player pops up, be prepared to empty your virtual wallets with free agent dollars.

(not founded in 2016 that’s an iconic spelling error by our engraver)

While people may say their fantasy league is great or the best, the Heinbail Dynasty League proves them wrong. The HDL doesn’t set the standard for what fantasy leagues should be because it cannot be replicated. The ever evolving, ever improving, and everlasting dynasty football league is the epitome of excellence.

Heinbail Dynasty League

The official blog for the HDL

Michael Altbaum

Written by

Heinbail Dynasty League

The official blog for the HDL

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