Former NFL LB Blake Martinez Has Made $11.5M in Revenue from Pokémon Card Business

Former NFL linebacker Blake Martinez has carved out a lucrative second career.

The Athletic's Zak Keefer detailed Friday how Martinez turned his childhood passion of collecting Pokémon cards into a professional pursuit by starting his own company, Blake's Breaks, last July.

Blake's Breaks has since generated $11.5 million in revenue and employs almost 20 full-time employees. Keefer wrote one Pikachu Illustrator card alone netted $672,000 at auction for Martinez, and another went for $570,000.

The Green Bay Packers selected Martinez in the fourth round of the 2016 NFL draft after he had a productive college career at Stanford. The 29-year-old spent his first four seasons with Green Bay before suiting up for the New York Giants and Las Vegas Raiders.

Eventually, he grew a bit disillusioned with playing in the NFL.

"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?" he said to Keefer.

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

Martinez made $28.9 million in career earnings in the NFL. It seems he has found a new venture that can be equally prosperous and far less dangerous.