When the NFL Draft kicks off tonight it will be doing so without a very important person: The top quarterback and presumed #1 overall pick in the draft.
Fernando Mendoza is coming off a national championship season in which he also won the Heisman Trophy. But when his name is called tonight, capping off those remarkable achievements by becoming an NFL football player, he won’t be there.
He’ll be with his mother in Miami.
“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 Thursday night. It’ll be a dream for a lot of guys,” Mendoza said in a clip from the Rich Eisen Show on April 20. “However, my mom really wanted to do it at home and so do my parents. It’s a lot easier for us, especially with the family situation.”
He continued, “I’m going to have to hop on a plane the next morning anyways. And for that travel, it’d be a lot easier to stay at home. I wanted to stay and make the memory with everyone 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 I can make. Rather than limiting it to 10 or 12 people in Pittsburgh.”
Mendoza’s mother, Elsa, suffers from multiple sclerosis and uses a wheelchair.
“Mommy, this is your trophy as much as it is mine,” Mendoza told his mother after winning the Heisman Trophy. “You’ve always been my biggest fan. You’re my light. You’re my why. You’re my biggest supporter.”
He continued, “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.”
In response, a few days after her son’s Heisman speech, Elsa wrote a letter lauding her son’s journey to the top of college football.
“Then there’s one more aspect of your journey that’s always touched me very deeply — though it’s not something I’ve always been open to talking about. And it’s the way that your journey over the last several years has intertwined with my own. Specifically, my battle with multiple sclerosis,” she wrote in a letter posted to the Players’ Tribune.
After revealing how she withheld much of the details about her MS diagnosis from Fernando and his brother, to keep them from worrying about her, Elsa talked about how COVID forced her hand.
“It wasn’t until five years ago, when I got COVID, that things started to go downhill in a way where there was no more hiding it,” she wrote.
After talking about how the worsening of her condition prevented her from traveling to football games and the difficult conversations she had with her children about the disease, she credited her son with making her battle with the disease all the easier.
“But you’ve made it so much easier. And you’ve done that in the sweetest, strongest, most Fernando way possible — by making me feel the exact opposite of embarrassed. You’ve made me feel seen,” she added.
She said, “You’ve always kept that same spark in your eye. No matter what kind of state I’ve been in, or day I’ve been having — 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.”
The Las Vegas Raiders hold the #1 overall pick, and it is pretty much universally expected that Mendoza will hear his name called at that time. When he does, he’ll be surrounded by the team that’s been with him the whole time, his family.
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