It was once said that Blake Martinez brings the same level of hype he had sacking a quarterback when he pulls a Charizard from a pack. Well, no one’s seen that level of hype from Martinez in some time—on either front.
The linebacker-turned-Pokémon card trader-turned-linebacker spoke with reporters on Tuesday, a few hours after he officially signed on with the Carolina Panthers’ practice squad. Before making his return to an NFL locker room, Martinez was banned from conducting business on the marketplace Whatnot following an investigation that concluded he had scammed customers.
He was asked about it this afternoon.
“Yeah, I don’t wanna go too deep into it,” he said. “I think the main thing I wanna address is there’s a lot of things out there that aren’t true, a lot of speculation, a lot of false claims. But, just still workin’, workin’ through those type of things and hope to be back.”
Martinez’s company Blake’s Breaks hosted live streams on Whatnot—where he would open packs of Pokémon trading cards and auction them off to viewers. He claimed he had brought in over $11.5 million worth of revenue in under a year through his sales.
This past summer, however, users on YouTube and Reddit accused Blake’s Breaks of various offenses—including swapping out high-level packs for lower-level packs on broadcasts, not shipping out orders and manipulating bets.
Whatnot’s investigation into the matter resulted in Martinez’s permanent ban from the platform on Aug. 4.
Now, the 29-year-old, who last played on Nov. 6 of 2022 for the Las Vegas Raiders, will try to reemerge on the platform he’s a bit more known for.
