Former New York Giants linebacker Blake Martinez (54) and Tae Crowder (48) shake hands during mandatory minicamp at the Quest Diagnostics Training Center on Tuesday, June 7, 2022, in East Rutherford. Danielle Parhizkaran/NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK

Blake Martinez made more selling a rare Pokémon card than he did playing in the NFL

By Andrew Kulha | Last updated Nov 21, 2022 8:07 PM ET

It seemed random when linebacker Blake Martinez retired from not just his post with the Las Vegas Raider, but from the NFL in general.

Turns out, Martinez packing his bags in season and just a few days after he led the team in tackles wasn't all so random after all. At least that appears to be the case because it's being reported that the linebacker had himself somewhat of a windfall just two weeks before he pulled the plug on his football dreams.

Speaking of dreams, Martinez lived the dream of all card collectors, selling a rare Pokémon card that was apparently worth much more than the annual salary he was being paid to play professional football.

Bleacher Report had details on the financials:

Linebacker Blake Martinez retired abruptly Nov. 10, two weeks after he sold a rare Pokémon card for $672K

His Raiders contract this year was worth $1.035M pic.twitter.com/Uaf7Sb8ZsX
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) November 21, 2022

What can't this guy do?

He lived the dream of jocks everywhere by playing in the NFL and then followed that up by living the dream of nerds (or hoarders) everywhere by making over half a million by selling a Pokémon card.

If that's not reason enough for those aspiring to follow in Martinez's footsteps to "catch 'em all," nothing would be.

Andrew Kulha

Andrew Kulha is probably the only sports writer you know who also doubles as a mortician. Spooky! @KulhaSports

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