LB Martinez joins Panthers after Pokémon fallout

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Linebacker Blake Martinez, who retired from the NFL during the 2022 season and later was involved in a Pokémon card scandal that got national attention, joined the Carolina Panthers on Tuesday as a member of the practice squad.

Neither head coach Frank Reich nor defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero ruled out the possibility Martinez could play in Thursday night’s primetime game against the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field.

Martinez, who has experience in Carolina’s 3-4 scheme from his time with the Green Bay Packers (2016-19), also didn’t rule out being promoted to the 53-man roster in time to play.

“Every competitor wants every chance they get to go and play,” Martinez said after his first practice. “Any opportunity I get I’ll gladly take.

“There’s obviously a process to it. I feel like if you went to anyone and said, ‘Hey, you want to play on Thursday night football?’ They’d be, ‘Hell, yeah!’ No matter who it is.”

Martinez, 29, last played for the Las Vegas Raiders in 2022. He retired in November of that season, announcing his decision to leave the game on social media.

“I had an amazing journey with some incredible franchises, and made lifelong friendships,” he wrote. “I have chosen to step away from this career at this time to focus on my family and future passions! I am excited for this new journey and appreciate all the fans and organizations that have supported me throughout the years!”

Reports at the time suggested Martinez retired to focus on his business of selling Pokémon and sports trading cards, called Blake’s Breaks.

Martinez said the decision to retire had more to do with “family, personal stuff.”

“That was the clickbait central,” he said of putting his retirement on the Pokémon card business.

The scandal heated up in July when users on Reddit and YouTube began claiming Blake’s Breaks of wrongdoings.

CNBC referred to Martinez’s venture as a “side hustle” that, according to documents obtained by the organization, brought in more than $8.3 million in revenue.

One rare Pokémon card reportedly went for $672,000.

Martinez sold his cards on Whatnot, an online social marketplace that allows users to sell products to each other.

In August, he was “permanently” removed from the site and accused of scamming buyers.

“After a comprehensive investigation into [Blake’s Breaks’] operations, we have decided to permanently remove the seller from our platform,” the site said in a statement.

Martinez said there were “a lot of things out there that aren’t true, a lot of speculations, a lot of false claims.”

He said the company continues to work through some of those things, adding the business was put on hold until all is resolved.

“I learned a lot,” he said. “There’s a lot more due diligence in the things I was doing, the process I was going through, the people I was bringing on, just to make sure those things didn’t happen.”

Martinez said he initially got a call from the Panthers about seven weeks ago after starting inside linebacker Shaq Thompson went on season-ending injury reserve with a broken fibula.

The call came from linebackers coach Peter Hansen, who was Martinez’s position coach at Stanford.

“He was like, ‘Hey, you still feeling it?”’ Martinez said. “I was getting the dad bod that was slowly coming on at that point. So, I was like, ‘Yeah, I still I think got it.’ So, I started training and had a workout about two weeks ago and got the call [Monday].”

Martinez also got a call from the New Orleans Saints.

Martinez was a fourth-round pick by the Green Bay Packers in 2016 when Carolina senior defensive consultant Dom Capers was the defensive coordinator there and running the 3-4 scheme now used by the Panthers.

Playing inside linebacker, he led the team in tackles in 2017 with 144.

He joins a Carolina team that will play Thursday night’s game against the Chicago Bears without outside linebacker Brian Burns (concussion) and two other outside linebackers in Justin Houston and Yetur Gross-Matos, both on injured reserve.

Martinez’s presence could open the door for inside linebacker Frankie Luvu to play more outside.

Reich noted Monday that Martinez knows the 3-4 system run by Evero, a disciple of Capers who also was in Green Bay the year Martinez was drafted.

Martinez can’t wait to get back in a game, whether it’s Thursday or the following week.

“I definitely missed it,” he said. “Once the season started, seeing all the stuff during training camp, there was still that itch. I was like, ‘I can still do that.”’