It hasn’t taken long for former Giants linebacker Blake Martinez to successfully transition into his next stage of life since retiring from the NFL at 28 years old.

CNBC Make It reported that Martinez has made more than $5 million in the seven months since launching Blake’s Breaks, his company that sells Pokémon cards on the platform Whatnot. It was a side venture that Martinez had reportedly started during the COVID-19 pandemic, but his personal connection with Pokémon cards dates back to when he was younger and collected them. 

“Every single day when I wake up, my shoulder doesn’t hurt and my back doesn’t hurt anymore,” Martinez told CNBC Make It. “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.’”

His mother gave that original collection of Pokémon cards away, Martinez said, but he started another collection that eventually led to live sessions on Whatnot — where he opened the packages and “auctioned the cards off one by one,” CNBC Make It wrote. He even sold one card for $672,000 in October, though that one was sold through Goldin Auctions, according to USA TODAY’S Touchdown Wire.

Martinez launched Blake’s Breaks in July 2022, while he was still a member of the Giants. He suffered a torn ACL during the 2021 season, and the team released him a year later after a disconnect with the new coaching staff, including defensive coordinator Wink Martindale.

One month later, though, he reunited with former New York defensive coordinator Patrick Graham in Las Vegas. He only played in four games with the Raiders, starting two, before retiring after a seven-year career that started in Green Bay — where the Packers made him a fourth-round pick in 2016.

Not long into his tenure with the Raiders, Martinez told CNBC Make It that he had a “pivot point.” He noticed the amount of time spent on Blake’s Breaks, and he decided to continue with the venture full-time. Martinez has 15 contract employees and a pair of warehouses in Miami and Denver, with another one in New Jersey reportedly in the plans.

“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 never made a Pro Bowl, but he led the NFL in combined tackles during the 2017 season with 144. He either tied or surpassed that number the next three seasons, too, and he started all 16 games with the Giants in 2020 before sustaining a torn ACL in their Week 3 loss the next season.