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Fernando Mendoza shared the moment he was selected first overall in the NFL Draft with his family from home Thursday night.
He was seen hugging his family, including his mother Elsa Mendoza, in a moment of celebration.
Despite being projected to be the first overall pick, Mendoza skipped the personal draft in Pittsburgh to stay in Florida with his mother, who is battling multiple sclerosis (MS) and is confined to a wheelchair.
Mendoza told reporters after he was drafted that he decided not to go to Pittsburgh to make it easier for his mother to travel to Las Vegas tomorrow when he visits his team.
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Indiana Hoosiers quarterback Fernando Mendoza gestures after the CFP National Championship game against the Miami Hurricanes at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla., on Jan. 19, 2026. (Kirby Lee/Imagn Images)
When Mendoza was only about 4 years old, his mother was diagnosed with the disease. It is a chronic, autoimmune disease of the central nervous system that can affect the brain and spinal cord. She has been in a wheelchair for the past few years.
Elsa Mendoza wrote about the experience in a 2015 letter to her sons that was published in The Players Tribune.
“I was diagnosed about 18 years ago, but of course you never knew. You and Alberto were so young and I was fine… and mostly I didn’t want you to worry. It just felt like this impossible thing to place on you. On my sweet boys. And then I continued to be fine until about 10 years ago when we were skiing and I broke my ankle and knee,” she wrote.
“But even after that, I wasn’t quite ready to tell you—only that my leg hadn’t healed all the way, and that’s why your mom was limping. It wasn’t until five years ago, when I got Covid, that things started going downhill in a way where there was no hiding it anymore. It was during football season, and I realized I didn’t want to travel, and I didn’t want to travel, and I couldn’t think of you wanting to support you. suddenly I wasn’t yours games, I hated that, so that’s when I knew we had to put you and your brother down.
INDIANA FOOTBALL STAR AND HIS BROTHER JOIN THEIR NAME USERS TO FIGHT MS
Fernando Mendoza of the Indiana Hoosiers celebrates after defeating the Miami Hurricanes 27-21 in the 2026 College Football Playoff National Championship at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla., on Jan. 19, 2026. (Megan Briggs/Getty Images)
She went on to recall, “how hard a conversation it ended up being. ‘Your mom has this degenerative disease… and even though we don’t know how it’s going to develop, it’s going to start affecting us in a few ways. But it’s not going to affect us in the ways that matter. We’re going to have each other and love each other and be there for each other. I promise.”
Both Mednzoa’s parents grew up in Miami, Florida, as children of Cuban refugees who fled communism after Fidel Castro came to power in the country.
Mendoza’s father, Fernando Mendoza Sr., was a rower at Brown University and a 1987 Junior World Championships gold medalist.
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Fernando Mendoza of the Indiana Hoosiers celebrates after defeating the Miami Hurricanes 27-21 in the 2026 College Football Playoff National Championship at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla., on Jan. 19, 2026. (Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
But Mendoza’s father also played soccer when he was younger and was a teammate Miami Hurricanes head coach Mario Cristobal at Christopher Columbus High School in the 1980s. Mendoza would go on to defeat his father’s former teammate in this year’s CFP national championship game.
Meanwhile, his mother played tennis at the University of Miami.
