From all-star linebacker to alleged Pokémon scammer

Blake Martinez once made the seemingly innocent decision to retire from professional football to work on one of his passions, Pokémon cards. In little under a year, the former Packer went from making millions to being investigated for scamming his customers and returning to the NFL. Let's take a look over the timeline of events.

Blake Martinez was one of the most promising inside linebackers in the National Football League when he burst onto the scene in 2016. 

Drafted by the Green Bay Packers in the fourth round, Martinez impressed the team’s coaches so much that they named the rookie as one of their starting inside linebackers.

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“Martinez, the fourth-round pick from Stanford whose spongelike demeanor impressed coaches and teammates alike,” wrote Michael Cohen of the Journal Sentinel. 

The rookie turned out to be a great choice, and Martinez crushed his first professional season with 69 total tackles, including three during his first postseason game.  

In 2017, Martinez kicked his performance into high gear, more than doubling his total tackles, and netting 972 defensive snaps according to ESPN. 

“Only one Packers defensive player was on the field for more snaps than Martinez was this past season,” wrote ESPN’s Rob Demobsky, “Safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix.”

Martinez co-led the NFL in tackles in 2017 and continued to perform at an extremely high level as he worked to get the Green Bay Packers into the Super Bowl.

“Martinez has been one of the most consistent tacklers in the NFL over the last three seasons,” wrote Matt Citak shortly after Martinez was signed to the New York Giants.  

The now-veteran linebacker signed a $30 million dollar contract with the New York Giants and spent one full season with the team before he was injured. 

The following year, the Giants released their former captain—though Martinez didn’t seem too beat up about the decision. “While rehabbing, he found himself focusing more and more on the side hustle he picked up during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic,” wrote Megan Sauer. 

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Martinez’s side hustle wasn’t what you’d expect from one of the league’s leading players. Instead of starting an athletic line or consulting business, Martinez chose a side hustle he was far more familiar with—selling Pokémon cards. 

In high school, Martinez would buy Pokémon cards from his local Circle K and collect them in a binder according to Sauer. When social media influencers began reselling the cards during the pandemic, Martinez figured he would go through his old cards. 

All of the linebacker's cards had been given away by his mother, however, so Martinez spent $30,000 dollars on a few boxes to get his collection back, that’s when he realized the card's true value…

“He started buying more boxes, paying tens of thousands of dollars for 36 packs of cards at a time,” Sauer wrote, adding that he eventually turned to live streaming while opening new packs, and his future venture was born. 

“When it came time to decide whether to fight for a spot on a new team—in his case, the Las Vegas Raiders—or double down on selling Pokémon cards, [Martinez] made a surprising decision,” Sauer added. 

The former linebacker created his own brand—Blake’s Break—and has hired a small team to help him run his business, though he did admit to missing his football career.  He had huge initial success, telling The Athletic in July 2023 that he had made over $11.5 million from his new venture.

According to Sporting News, Martinez's new company only lasted a month on the popular trading platform Whatnot, before he was banned with multiple big names in the Pokémon card industry accusing him of scamming his audience.

Whilst the accusations are complex and require an understanding of niche Pokémon card rules, Martinez was essentially fixing his live streams so viewers who were betting on the outcome were guaranteed to lose. Beyond that, it has also been alleged he would often not ship orders to paying customers, per Sporting News.

Whatnot, seeing the accusations from trusted sellers, conducted their own investigation in Martinez's company and found that at least some of the accusations had legs. They removed him from their platform and the former Raiders linebacker's dreams of running a Pokémon card empire ended. Martinez denied any wrongdoing, telling reporters, "there's a lot of things out there that aren't true."

Following the end of Martinez's venture into Pokémon, he decided to return to football, signing initially to the Panthers practice squad before joining the Steelers 53-man roster on November 21, 2023.

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