Fernando Mendoza is expected to be selected No. 1 overall by the Las Vegas Raiders when the 2026 NFL Draft opens in Pittsburgh on April 23.
He will not be in Pittsburgh. He will be at his home in Miami, surrounded by everyone who got him to this moment, and at the center of that group is his mother Elsa, who has lived with multiple sclerosis for nearly twenty years, uses a wheelchair, and is the person he credits most for everything he has accomplished.
He explained his decision on The Rich Eisen Show on April 20. “Pittsburgh is a great opportunity and it’s a great venue, and I’m really excited to see all the guys walk across the stage on Thursday night,” he said. “However, my mom really wanted to do it at home, and so did my parents. It’s a lot easier for us, especially with the family situation.”
He added:
“I wanted to stay and make the memory with everybody who poured into my football journey, mentors, coaches, family, friends. Being able to share that moment with all of them is going to be the best memory that I can make, rather than limiting it to 10 or 12 people in Pittsburgh.”
Who Is Fernando Mendoza?
Fernando Gabriel Mendoza V was born October 1, 2003 in Boston, Massachusetts, his family was living there while his father, Fernando Sr., completed a medical residency.
They returned to Miami shortly after his birth, and Miami is where he was formed.
He grew up about a mile from the University of Miami campus and attended Christopher Columbus High School, a school with a predominantly Hispanic and Latino student body in the heart of the city’s Cuban-American community.
All four of his grandparents were born in Cuba and moved to Miami in 1959 following the Cuban Revolution.
He cites that heritage as a defining part of who he is, he delivered portions of his Heisman Trophy acceptance speech in Spanish to honor his family.
Mendoza is 22 years old, 6 feet 5 inches tall, 225 pounds, and was a two-sport athlete in high school, competing in both football and tennis.
He was not a heavily recruited prospect. He initially committed to Yale before flipping to California. At Cal he went 9-10 as a starter over two seasons, bowl-eligible both years, nothing more.
He transferred to Indiana in 2025 and what happened next was one of the more extraordinary seasons in the history of college football.
Mendoza’s Legendary 2025 Heisman Campaign
Indiana had never won a national championship. Fernando Mendoza led the Hoosiers to a 16-0 record and the College Football Playoff title, the first undefeated season in program history and the school’s first national championship.
On January 19, 2026, he was named the Offensive MVP of the College Football Playoff National Championship game, a 27-21 victory over Miami.
He did it with numbers that broke the program record book. His 41 passing touchdowns in the 2025 season set a new Indiana single-season record. His 72.0 percent completion percentage set another.
He threw for 3,535 yards, completed passes at a 72 percent rate, and added rushing scores on top of that.
The signature moment came at Penn State, a 27-24 road win, when he threw the go-ahead touchdown to receiver Omar Cooper Jr. in the final moments of the game. It was immediately described as a Heisman moment, and it was.
He won the Heisman Trophy on December 13, 2025, Indiana’s first ever winner. The vote was not close. He received 2,362 points with 643 first-place votes, finished first in all six Heisman regions, and appeared on 95.16 percent of all ballots, tied with Marcus Mariota in 2014 for the second-highest ballot rate in Heisman history.
He also won the Maxwell Award, Walter Camp Award and Davey O’Brien Award. He was named AP College Football Player of the Year. He was 22 years old.
Who Is Elsa Mendoza?
Elsa Mendoza played tennis at the University of Miami, where she earned two degrees.
She is the one who first taught Fernando how to throw a football, using a tennis drill from her playing days. Step and throw, step and throw.
Every quarterback coach who later worked with Fernando told her that was the worst throwing technique she could have possibly taught him. He made it work.
Elsa was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis approximately eighteen years ago.
MS is a chronic autoimmune disease that attacks the central nervous system, progressively impairing movement, balance and coordination. She initially hid the diagnosis from her young sons.
She told Fernando and his younger brother Alberto about it in 2020, when her condition deteriorated after she contracted COVID.
She now uses a wheelchair and has been a constant presence at Fernando’s games throughout his entire college career, visible on the sidelines, brought into every celebration.
In the days before the Heisman ceremony in December, Elsa published a letter to Fernando in The Players’ Tribune.
Elsa wrote about what it took to live publicly with a condition that made her feel exposed. “One of the biggest issues I had to overcome as my condition first worsened wasn’t just the condition itself,” she wrote. “It was the embarrassment.”
She described the fear of being seen differently, of being treated as less than herself. Then she described what her son had done about that without ever making it a statement or a performance. “You’ve never once looked away. You’ve never once treated me like I’m embarrassing, or deficient, or anything other than someone you love and are standing by.”
When Fernando accepted the Heisman Trophy, he spoke directly to her in front of a national audience, and delivered part of the speech in Spanish, for his family.
“Mommy, this is your trophy as much as it is mine,” he said. “You’ve always been my biggest fan. You’re my light. You’re my why. You’re my biggest supporter. Your sacrifices, courage, love, those have been my first playbook and the playbook that I’m going to carry by my side through my entire life. You taught me that toughness doesn’t need to be loud. It can be quiet and strong. It’s choosing hope. It’s believing in yourself when the world doesn’t give you much reason to. Together, you and I are rewriting what people think is possible. I love you.”
What He Said About Her On The Rich Eisen Show
When he explained his draft decision, Mendoza did not frame it as a sacrifice. He framed it as obvious. “I see her fighting every single day, and with a smile on her face,” he said. “So there’s no excuse for me to have a bad day, bad play or bad game. I’m always trying to have an optimistic approach, give the best, serve the best that I can to my teammates.”
That sentence, I see her fighting every single day with a smile on her face, so there’s no excuse for me to have a bad day, is not the language of someone performing humility.
It is the language of someone who has genuinely organized his competitive identity around a person he watches fight every morning.
In 2024, Fernando and his brother Alberto launched a fundraising campaign for the National MS Society in honor of their mother. They set an initial goal of $20,000. They raised nearly $375,000.
The Brother And The Family
Alberto Mendoza is Fernando’s younger brother and followed him into football at Christopher Columbus High School in Miami, where he led the team to two state championships at quarterback.
Alberto initially committed to James Madison University before following coach Curt Cignetti, who had recruited Fernando to Indiana, in December 2023.
When Fernando transferred to Indiana in 2025, both brothers were on the same roster. Alberto served as the backup quarterback as Fernando led the Hoosiers to a national title.
Their father Fernando Sr. was a quarterback at Christopher Columbus High School before becoming a doctor.
Their family has been embedded in the Miami football community for decades, and the decision to watch the draft at home in South Florida is as much about that community as it is about any single person.
Mendoza Expected To Go #1 Tonight
The Las Vegas Raiders hold the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft and are widely expected to use it on Mendoza. Tom Brady, now a minority owner of the Raiders, was part of the Las Vegas contingent at the national championship game and spoke briefly with Mendoza at the NFL Combine.
Mendoza has said he would welcome Brady as a mentor. The Raiders have signed veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins with the intention of having him serve as a bridge while Mendoza develops in his rookie season.
Mendoza said he is committed to giving ESPN and the league whatever access they need to cover his draft night from Miami.
“I still want to be the best league partner that I can become,” he said. Whatever camera setups, whatever access, whatever they need. But the night itself will be in Miami, at home, with his mother.
The last time the top projected quarterback did not attend the NFL Draft was 2021, when Trevor Lawrence was selected No. 1 by the Jacksonville Jaguars. Mendoza will not be in Pittsburgh either. He will be exactly where he should be.
