We are coming into week 3 of the Legends marathon, and have already seen a number of new players pop up as we have gone through the first releases of the season in other sets. Its actually been pretty legend heavy compared to last year, and that isnt a bad thing. For Huddle, the titans of the gridiron have always been held to a higher standard, and the question remains, are you on the bandwagon?

History

First, its worth mentioning that no retired player could be put on a Huddle card before last year, as the NFLPA was only for active roster participants. Because the app was only licensed by the NFLPA from 2012 to 2014, no legend could be used. Every last FOTW article talked about how much they were pining for their favorite players of years past to collect, and it just wasnt available.

Fast forward to the first season with NFL licensing, and all of a sudden, things changed. We also saw that Huddle wasnt taking the legend availability lying down either. For most of the 2015 season, the Gold Legend Marathon remained one of the top valued card sets in the entire thing, even though there were cards that ended up at a lower count.

It wasnt until the Pro Bowl that we really saw a way to acquire cards of retired players with very few coins, as it was always a high end type of setup each time Huddle delved into the pool of retired players.

Now that we are seeing the way things are going for 2016, its clear that the strategy hasnt changed. Im not complaining one bit, as these types of cards remain one of the best reasons to spend money, if you so desire. I have always said that spending should entitle you to content that just isnt available for free users, otherwise the point of spending is diluted. Legends, for the most part, are one of those perks.

Roster

The other great part of 2016, is we have seen a new partnership between Topps and the Football Greats Alliance. If you arent familiar with the way things work, you cant just put anyone on a card, as you need the rights from the player to produce anything with their likeness on it. For most retired players, this is done through group license agreements, where companies collect permissions from a group of players, and then sell those permissions as a larger license so that companies like Topps doesnt have to negotiate individually with each player. Lucky for us, Topps made a deal with one of the best football GLs out there, and that means a stacked roster for 2016.

We have already seen Montana, Payton, White and other big names make their app debut, and we are likely not even close to finished. You can google who is licensed under that alliance, and if those names are coming, I cant wait.

This actually could end up as one of the best legend years of any app that Topps makes, as its clear that they are not just going to use and abuse their new relationship in a way that reduces the fun associated with chasing players of this caliber.

Contests

A new thing this year for Huddle is the addition of legend based contest card rewards associated with the week long challenge. The gold signatures remain some of the more valuable cards in the app, and look absolutely gorgeous. We saw big names like Payton and Starr get their due in weeks 1 and 3, and I would expect more from this as the season goes on.

I think that adding them to the contest pool of prizes is a great way to reward the effort needed to place well in the week long slate of games, and its no secret that people want the cards that have already been given out. I had to lock my gold signature of Walter Payton, because blind trades were so plentiful, it was annoying. That’s a good sign.

Value

If you havent seen already, the community places quite the big price tag on many of the legend cards as well. Because Football breeds a state of nostalgia for so many people, we all tie many of the players of our youth to memories we experienced along the way. Even though not every player had a HOF career, they all mean something to the history of the team they are pictured on. Desmond Howard wasnt exactly the best Packer ever, or even in the right zip code when you compare him to Starr and other players we have seen in Huddle so far. That being said I can guarantee that everyone remembers the Super Bowl that made him famous with Green Bay after a stellar college career. That’s what these types of releases can do, and its why those cards have value above and beyond.

Expect to overpay for a legend card as compared to an active player card in the same set. Its just the way things are, especially with cost of acquisition so high for many of the releases. Right now, the Legend marathon is only eclipsed by Gold Signatures and MAYBE some of the Limited Variants, but that could change.

We saw that Montana got special treatment (rightfully so) with a Legends Fire Signature, and I doubt that is the last we see of super premium cards that are only available for the top 1% of the app.

Im very excited to see how things progress, and I am crossing my fingers that cards are on the way that pair these types of guys with newer players. As a Vikings fan, I would love to see Adrian Peterson get a card with Walter Payton, even with the injury. It would just be cool to see.

Legends have that type of clout. I think that its right they do.