Earlier this season, in an attempt to help shore up their defense, the Las Vegas Raiders brought in linebacker Blake Martinez, a player who is very familiar with defensive coordinator Patrick Graham. But after just four games, Martinez suddenly decided to retire from the NFL.
The timing certainly was questionable as Martinez was coming off his best game as a Raider, finishing with 11 total tackles while being on the field for 91 percent of the team’s defensive snaps. But it is now becoming clear why Martinez chose to walk away from football.
According to Bryce L. Jackson of Game Rant, Martinez is retiring to focus on his new business of selling Pokemon cards after selling one for more than double his yearly salary:
NFL Linebacker Blake Martinez is ending his football playing career to start a new venture in selling rare Pokemon cards. He sold one rare Pokemon card in near-perfect condition for $672,000, more than double his current Raider’s contract salary.
Martinez has his own business that is focused solely on collecting and flipping rare cards, with those Illustrator cards known to be extremely rare:
He has a company called Blakes Breaks that is solely about collecting rare cards and flipping them for profit. Days after he sold the card at auction, he announced his retirement from the NFL.
The Pokemon Illustrator card is one of the crown jewel cards for collectors, up there with Charizard cards similar to what Logan Paul owns. The Pokemon Illustrator card was a promotional card only released in Japan in January 1998 to winners of a card illustration contest. There are an estimated 40 of these cards still in existence.
It is extremely difficult to argue with Martinez’s decision to hang it up in this case. The effects that football can have on the human body are well known now and many players are retiring earlier because of this. Most famously, former San Francisco 49ers linebacker Patrick Willis retired at the top if his game after just eight seasons.
But with Martinez able to make far more money by trading cards, as opposed to dealing with all of they pain and mental toll the NFL brings, it’s a no-brainer for him on where he needs to put his focus.
