{"id":83101,"date":"2026-04-24T03:03:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T03:03:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/why-fernando-mendoza-chose-not-to-attend-nfl-draft-in-person\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T03:03:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T03:03:26","slug":"why-fernando-mendoza-chose-not-to-attend-nfl-draft-in-person","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/why-fernando-mendoza-chose-not-to-attend-nfl-draft-in-person\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Fernando Mendoza Chose Not to Attend NFL Draft in Person"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Heisman Trophy winner <strong>Fernando Mendoza<\/strong> declined to attend the 2026 NFL Draft in person for a very personal reason.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cMy mom really wanted to do it at home and so did my parents,\u201d Mendoza said Monday, April 20, on ESPN\u2019s <i>The Rich Eisen Show<\/i>. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot easier for us, especially with the family situation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Mendoza\u2019s mother, <strong>Elsa<\/strong>, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2007 and currently uses a wheelchair.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cWe\u2019d have to hop on a plane the next morning anyway,\u201d Mendoza continued. \u201cFor that travel, it would be a lot easier to stay at home. 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.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The 2026 NFL Draft is taking place at Pittsburgh\u2019s Acrisure Stadium, home of the Steelers. Instead of attending the event in-person, Fernando made plans to watch from his hometown of Miami with quite an impressive spread of Cuban food.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cWe\u2019re going to roast an entire pig,\u201d Fernando told <strong>Kay Adams<\/strong> on Monday\u2019s episode of her show, <i>Up &amp; Adams<\/i>. \u201cWe\u2019re going to eat every part of the pig. It\u2019s going to be a cool experience. We did it back when we played UCLA this year and a lot of the teammates enjoyed it \u2026 Everyone had pork sandwiches and it was just an awesome experience.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Adams, 40, exclaimed, \u201cWhat do you mean every bit of a pig?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"link-related article link-related__with-thumb\">\n<figure class=\"article__figure\">\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:56.25%;\" class=\"ratio-based-placeholder\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.usmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-2250450783-Fernando-Mendoza-famly-Guide.jpg?crop=92px%2C98px%2C1351px%2C763px&amp;resize=400%2C225&amp;quality=55&amp;strip=all\" srcset=\"\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 400px, (max-width: 770px) calc(100vw - 6em), 200px\" alt=\"Indiana University Quarterback Fernando Mendoza\u2019s Family Guide\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\" data-fallback-img=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-2250450783-Fernando-Mendoza-famly-Guide.jpg?quality=86&amp;strip=all\"\/><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<div class=\"article__content\">\n<h3 class=\"article__title\">\n<p>    <span class=\"related-badge\">Related: <\/span><span class=\"related-title\">Indiana University Quarterback Fernando Mendoza\u2019s Family Guide<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\n\t\t\tThe 2025 Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza has taken the Indiana University football team to new heights \u2014 but the athlete couldn\u2019t have done it without his supportive family by his side. \u201cMy lifelong teammate, Alberto, my brother, my closest confidant. The one I trust more than anybody to get through a tough day, tough [\u2026]\t\t<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cAlright, not every bit,\u201d Fernando clarified. \u201cBut it\u2019s going to be a great tradition. You usually eat the skin and then you usually eat the pork, just the meat of the pig. It should be fun. There\u2019s a couple of my uncles who are very into it. It\u2019s a whole 24-hour process.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"news-block\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-form  \">\n\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.usmagazine.com\/wp-content\/themes\/us-weekly\/assets\/img\/newsletter-bg-narrow.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"newsletter-form__background background-narrow\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\n\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.usmagazine.com\/wp-content\/themes\/us-weekly\/assets\/img\/newsletter-bg-wide.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"newsletter-form__background background-wide\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<div class=\"newsletter-signup__success\" aria-live=\"polite\">\n<h3>Thank You!<\/h3>\n<p>You have successfully subscribed.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">As for his mother, Fernando has often discussed how vital her support has been throughout his miraculous rise through the college football ranks. In January, Elsa was able to be in attendance at Miami\u2019s Hard Rock Stadium when her son helped guide the Indiana Hoosiers to the school\u2019s first-ever national championship in football.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cMy mother is my light, she\u2019s my everything. She\u2019s my why,\u201d Fernando told reporters at a press conference before the national championship game. \u201cA lot of football players talk about \u2018who\u2019s their why,\u2019 my mother is my why. To see her fight and overcome the struggle with the optimism that she has, it means so much to myself, it means so much to my family.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">He added, \u201cShe\u2019s been a great role model to myself and I really just can\u2019t thank her enough. I\u2019m so proud to be her son. I wouldn\u2019t want any other mother in the world.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async defer src=\"https:\/\/platform.instagram.com\/en_US\/embeds.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza declined to attend the 2026 NFL Draft in person for a very personal reason.\u00a0 \u201cMy mom really wanted to do it at home and so did my parents,\u201d Mendoza said Monday, April 20, on ESPN\u2019s The Rich Eisen Show. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot easier for us, especially with the family situation.\u201d [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":83102,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_daextam_enable_autolinks":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrity-trends-and-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2256978235-Fernando-Mendoza-January-2026.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}