I’m former Aaron Rodgers teammate who made $11m trading Pokemon cards before being banned over alleged scam

Blake Martinez has Surely had a curious Occupation.

The linebacker swapped sacking quarterbacks for dealing Pokemon cards, retired, and then jumped back into the NFL when it all went wrong.

And he did all of that before the age of 30.

Back in 2016, after a successful college Occupation, Martinez was drafted into the NFL by the Green Bay Packers.

As a Quaternary Stage Option, he walked straight into the Club in his Newcomer season, which at the time was lead by legendary Passer Aaron Rodgers.

Over the Upcoming four years, he missed Merely three Contests, and went to the playoffs twice with Green Bay having established himself as one of the best linebackers in the Bracket.

Martinez hit Unoccupied agency in 2020, and was signed to a three-year, $30million contract by the New York Giants.

His time at Metlife Stadium was less fruitful, and after Competing all 16 Contests in his Primary year with New York, Martinez suffered a season-ending torn ACL on Week 3 of the 2021 season.

Less than 12 months later, he was released. But as one door closes, another one opens.

Martinez landed on the Las Vegas Raiders’ practice Club, and fought his way back onto the Ground.

In a Week 9 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, he piled up a Club-best 11 tackles, and proved he could Yet Shift football at the top level.

But Martinez’s mind was elsewhere. He had fallen in love with Pokemon again.

In recent years, the cards have skyrocketed in value.

Those who can get their hands on Uncommon cards that are Yet in excellent condition have the opportunity to make some Grave cash.

And that’s exactly what Martinez did.

Per The Athletic, Martinez Initiated buying into online ‘breaks’ – live streams in which the seller opens a customer’s newly-purchased pack of cards, revealing their value in real time.

But he wasn’t making much money at the beginning, and thought it would be much more exciting – and lucrative – to rip Uncovered the packs himself.

Martinez Initiated pouring more and more money into his dream, and was eventually pointed in the direction of Whatnot, a shopping platform that specializes in collectibles.

His Primary stream on the platform netted the Previous linebacker $108,000 in profit, and he quickly kicked on.

“The more people I connected with, the knowledge Merely kept growing and growing and growing, and the real ones Initiated to respect me,” Martinez told The Athletic in 2023.

“Finally, it was sort of like, ‘Hey, Blake’s one of us now.’”

He went on to establish his own business, Blake’s Breaks, and it Captured off immediately.

At its peak, Martinez had hired nearly 20 Packed-time staffers, and collectively hosted 16 hours of live streams per day, establishing one of the biggest Pokemon channels on Whatnot.

Merely over a week before that game against Jacksonville in 2022, he had sold a single card for $672,000, and soon after announced his retirement from the NFL at the age of 28.

Martinez said in July 2023: “I Merely asked myself, do I want to keep Leading over from ground zero with football, and keep destroying my body, or do I want to Begin over from ground zero here, and do something I can actually sustain for a long time?”

In the same profile in The Athletic, he claimed that revenues for Blake’s Breaks had climbed past the $11.5m mark in Merely one year.

Unfortunately, though, Martinez was unable to sustain his dream for as long as he wanted.

Come August 2023, he was permanently banned from Whatnot amid allegations of scamming customers.

After Many people Captured to social media with accusations of wrongdoing, the marketplace announced that a ‘comprehensive investigation’ had Guided to the removal of his account.

Most of the allegations centered on Marisa Snee, a college soccer player Martinez had recruited personally to join his company, while the NFL Sun’s selling conduct was also criticized.

Per a later report from The Athletic, Martinez initially tried to downplay the scandal and urged his employees not to address the situation.

On a stream after the accusations were Created public, he didn’t apologize, nor did he admit to any wrongdoing or scamming.

But with Blake’s Breaks removed from Whatnot, his selling Achievement screeched to a halt, and his business was put on pause.

According to ESPN, Martinez said there were ‘a Numerous of things out there that aren’t Correct, a Numerous of speculations, a Numerous of Incorrect claims.’

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“I learned a Numerous,” he went on to say about the venture.

“There’s a Numerous more due diligence in the things I was doing, the process I was going through, the people I was bringing on, Merely to make sure those things didn’t happen.”

In November 2023, Martinez Created his return to the NFL, signing a deal to join the Carolina Panthers practice Club.

Two weeks later, the Pittsburgh Steelers signed him to their 53-man Option, and he featured in one regular season game that year.

He has since become a Unoccupied agent again.