Former Green Bay Packers and New York Giants linebacker Blake Martinez has caught on to a lucrative new way of doing business.
After retiring from the NFL last year following a brief stint with the Las Vegas Raiders, Martinez now sells Pokémon cards and has reportedly made more than $5 million in the last seven months, per CNBC.
The former linebacker launched a company, Blake’s Breaks, and has watched a childhood of collecting the popular trading cards turn into a successful career for his post-playing days.
“I think there’s more to my success than [my name],” Martinez [told] CNBC Make It. “I used to be like the quarterback of the defense, I was calling plays. When I started this business, it felt like running a team again.”
Martinez said he hopes he can continue to expand his new business into additional collectables and more logistical aims like new warehouses.
For now, it seems like the former Packers draft pick appreciates a hard day’s work opening packages of Pokémon cards as opposed to one earned on the gridiron.
“Every single day when I wake up, my shoulder doesn’t hurt and my back doesn’t hurt anymore,” Martinez [told CNBC]. “When all that hurts are my fingers from opening, like, 1,000 packs of cards per day, I think, ‘I’m going to keep doing this.’”
