Carolina Panthers signing LB Blake Martinez after Pokémon card scandal

The Carolina Panthers have signed recently retired linebacker Blake Martinez this week ahead of a Thursday night matchup against the Chicago Bears, according to NFL reporter Jordan Schultz.

Martinez, a former Stanford star, started at linebacker for four straight years with the Packers. He signed a $30 million deal as a free agent with the Giants in March 2020. He then tore his ACL early in the 2021 season, which led to his eventual release from the Giants. In 2022, he signed with the Raiders, coming back from the knee injury to play defense before retiring.

His entire career took an abrupt turn when he decided to sell a pristine Pikachu Illustrator card for $672,000. Since then, he’s become a full-time Pokémon businessman with his company generating $11.5 million in revenues.

However, the trading card revenue stream may have run dry. Blake’s Breaks, his collectibles company, was banned from selling on the Whatnot marketplace following allegations of fraudulent sales popped up on Reddit. The marketplace responded by banning his account and refunding customers who weren’t satisfied with their deals with Blake’s Breaks.

“I understand the optics,” Martinez said of the Whatnot issues during a video post on Instagram. “I know the type of business I run…  Made a good amount of money — everybody knows, in the NFL — (and) I knew stepping into this (I) was going to have a target on my back.”

Not only was the ban from Whatnot detrimental to the sale of the cards, Martinez also had multiple full-time employees who would stream for hours a day live on the platform.

Now, Martinez is making a grand return to the NFL with the Panthers. During the last game he played in, a November matchup against the Jacksonville Jaguars, he posted 11 tackles with 2.5 tackles for loss.

Martinez used NFL earnings to purchase rare Pokemon cards

Long before he played football, Blake Martinez was like so many other kids who collected Pokémon cards. Growing up in Arizona, he’d buy a pack of cards for 99 cents. When he went off to play football for Stanford, he left his binder with his parents. Once he was in the NFL, he started reading about the amount of money people paid for a regular card. He thought he’d cash in with his collection. Instead, his mother told him she’d given away the cards long ago.

Martinez used $40,000 of his NFL earnings to buy cards on eBay. Then he began messaging collectors via Instagram. It took a while, but the collectors eventually accepted him as one of their own. He then decided to start his company from the ground up. A month later, he received a tip about a rare card that eventually led to the $672,000 windfall.

On3’s Suzanne Halliburton contributed to this report.