How Fernando Mendoza, NFL Draft’s top pick, was shaped by his mother, who is fighting multiple sclerosis

To understand what Elsa means to Fernando, one has to travel back in time to the day when his fate as the first Draft pick was more or less sealed: when he led Indiana to its first national championship.

After winning the Heisman Trophy, Fernando thanked his mother in an emotional speech.

“Mami, This is your trophy as much as it is mine,” Fernando said from the podium looking at his mom in the crowd, his voice cracking under the weight of emotion. “You’ve always been my biggest fan. You’re my light, you’re my why. You’re my biggest supporter.”

Fernando Mendoza Heisman Speech – An Emotional Tribute to His Mother, Elsa #iufb #HeisMendoza

"Mami, this is your trophy as much as it is mine…Your sacrifice, courage, love those have been my first playbook, and the playbook that I'm gonna carry through my side through my… pic.twitter.com/xvoUy9KanE

— Hoosier Review (@Hoosier_Review) December 14, 2025

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He continued: “You taught me that toughness doesn’t need to be loud. It can be quiet and strong. It is believing in yourself when the world doesn’t give you much reason to. Together, you and I, are rewriting what people think is possible.”

Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza throws out the ceremonial first pitch at the start of a baseball game between the Miami Marlins and the St. Louis Cardinals, Tuesday, April 21, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo)

Fernando has credited his mother, who used to play tennis in her university days, with teaching him how to throw the ball, a bread-and-butter skill for a quarterback.

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   NFL Draft explained

   It's been a whole year since US President Donald Trump let out a rant from his Truth Social handle with an angry "are they STUPID?" in there underlining his exasperation. This time, his tirade was not aimed at either his political opponents or his geo-political rivals. Trump was miffed by National Football League (NFL) teams not picking Shedeur Sanders in the first round of the NFL Draft.

   Sanders was a prospective top pick in last year's NFL Draft class. He ended up getting picked in the fifth round as the 144th overall pick.

   But Trump's post highlighted just how much people, even those holding the highest offices, can be emotionally invested in the NFL Draft.

   A top pick — or even a pick in the first round — is not a guarantee for excellence. Neither does getting picked in the fifth round mean you cannot be great. Ask NFL legend Tom Brady, who was selected by the New England Patriots in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL Draft as the 199th overall pick, who went on to become the seven-time Super Bowl champion

   So how does the NFL Draft work?

   Unlike an IPL auction (where teams bid for a player when their name comes up), the Draft is where each of the 32 NFL teams have an assigned order when they can pick a player who they want for their team.

   The NFL Draft takes place over seven rounds which are held over three days (Thursday through Saturday). The first round is held on Thursday. The second and third rounds are on Friday; rounds 4-7 are on Saturday.

   Each team has only eight minutes to make its pick in the first round. Teams get seven minutes to make picks in the second round, five minutes for regular or compensatory picks in rounds 3-6 and four minutes in round 7. To be eligible for the draft, players must have been out of high school for at least three years.

   Currently, each of the 32 clubs receives one pick in each of the seven rounds of the NFL Draft. The order of selection is determined by the reverse order of finish in the previous season.

   This means the team which finished with the worst record last season, gets the first pick in the Draft. (This only changes if teams have traded their Draft pick spots). The NFL champion, the team that wins the Super Bowl, has the last pick among the 32 teams.

   Teams that didn’t qualify for the playoffs are assigned draft slots 1-20. The order is determined by the standings at the end of the regular season: The club with the worst record will pick first, and the one with the best record will pick 20th.

   Teams that did qualify for the playoffs are assigned draft slots 21-32

   The team that lost the Super Bowl has the 31st pick in the draft. The two teams that lost in the conference championships pick in the 29th and 30th spots in the reverse order of their final regular season records. The four teams eliminated in the divisional round pick in slots 25-28 in the reverse order of their final regular season records. The four teams eliminated in the wild card round pick in slots 21-24 in the reverse order of their final regular season records.

Elsa recently wrote about this in an open letter for The Players’ Tribune.

“My dream was for you to play tennis like I did. And at University of Miami there was this drill they’d run us through, where we’d practice throwing a ball across the net, to work on our serve. ‘Step and throw, step and throw.’ So that’s what I’d tell you… And now of course every quarterback coach jokes with me, ‘That’s the WORST thing you could have told them.’ But you made it work,” Elsa wrote.

“My gentle giant. My darling son. My buddy. My teammate. I believe in you with every part of me.”

Last year, Fernando Mendoza received a heartfelt letter from his first teammate — his mom. ❤️ https://t.co/aDKpXpJ4TO @fernandomendoza | @IndianaFootball | @Raiders | #NFLDraft pic.twitter.com/q3jD5o55VP

— The Players’ Tribune (@PlayersTribune) April 24, 2026

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She then wrote a touching tribute about how her son had helped her cope with the effects of having MS.

“One of the biggest issues I had to overcome as my condition first worsened wasn’t just the condition itself. It was the embarrassment,” Elsa wrote in The Players’ Tribune letter. “I started to have to walk with a crutch … then for a while I had to do chemo … and then Covid added this whole other layer of concern about me getting sick. And I think I started to feel a mental toll from all of that of like, ‘Oh my God. I’m your mom!!! You’re my kids!!! I’m not YOUR responsibility, you’re MINE!!!’ It wasn’t easy.”

She continued: “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. Whether it was giving me full debriefs of your college visits, what you liked and disliked (pictures included) … or it was calling me before some big game I had to miss while in treatment … or it’s being so vocal and passionate about MS fundraising … or it’s even something as silly as joking, ‘Wait, did you put on a few pounds???’ when you have to carry me up the stairs … 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. And even as my condition has gotten worse, and as our lives continue to change around that fact: You manage to make me feel like I’m still every part of myself. Like I’m still that same person you’ve been teammates with since we got through our first Boston winter together. Like I’m still that same mom.”