Ex-Packers player opens up about leaving NFL for Pokémon cards

Blake Martinez earned millions playing in the NFL. He cut his career short to start a career in Pokémon cards.

The 2016 NFL Draft selection out of Stanford played seven seasons in the NFL, suiting up for the Green Bay Packers, New York Giants, and Las Vegas Raiders. The standout linebacker tied for the NFL lead in tackles during his 2017 campaign with the Packers. He remained among the leaders in total tackles for four straight seasons before a torn ACL wiped out most of his 2021 season.

Martinez, who was a Pokémon card collector as a kid, was reintroduced to his childhood hobby back in 2020 after reading about the soaring prices of the vintage cards at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Pokémon as a whole — through its trading cards, television shows, and video games — grew wildly popular in the late 1990s to the early 2000s. Pokémon cards have since exploded in value over the past couple of years. The thriving industry fascinated Martinez enough to start his own Pokémon card business in July of 2022, just weeks before training camp with the Raiders.

With injuries taking a toll on Martinez mentally, he decided to leave Las Vegas midseason to pursue his Pokémon business full-time. He relived the decision in an interview with The Athletic’s Zak Keefer.

“I just asked myself, do I want to keep starting over from ground zero with football, and keep destroying my body, or do I want to start over from ground zero here, and do something I can actually sustain for a long time?” Martinez said.

Martinez was on his third team in four seasons at that point, playing one of the most physically demanding roles in all of sport. Being able to find success in a different field — one not marked with chalk and chains — appealed to the 7-year pro enough to end his career before he turned 29. He’s now running a business that employs 20 members on its staff and is generating millions of dollars in revenue.

“I loved football. But what I found out was I loved building and running my own team even more.”