...Martinez said he chose No. 50 out of a group of numbers the Packers offered him. He didn’t think of the previous owner, linebacker A.J. Hawk, the franchise’s all-time leading tackler who spent nine seasons in Green Bay. The Packers did not issue No. 50 last season, after Hawk was released by the team the previous February.
“They gave me like 12 options, and I was just kind of going through it and not really thinking [and picked] No. 50 like, ‘50’s a great number.’ Then all of a sudden, everybody’s like, ‘Oh, you’ve got A.J. Hawk’s number.’ I was like, ‘Ohhhh, yep, here we go,’” Martinez said. “But it’s a great number, and I’ll do everything I can to live up to his legacy and all of what he’s done.”
Meanwhile, Martinez said his father, Marc, still is working on ridding the house of the hats and T-shirts of the NFL’s other 31 teams that he bought in preparation for his son being drafted. Martinez said extended family members grabbed some of the gear for a few other teams and joked that they “burned” the Chicago Bears paraphernalia. Martinez said his dad likely will donate whatever is left.