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Fernando Mendoza shared with his family from home the moment of being selected first overall in the NFL Draft on Thursday night.
He was seen hugging his family, including his mother Elsa Mendoza, in a moment of celebration.
Despite being projected to be the No. 1 overall pick, Mendoza skipped the in-person draft in Pittsburgh to stay in Florida with his mother, who battles multiple sclerosis (MS) and is wheelchair bound.
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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, Florida, on January 19, 2026. (Kirby Lee/Image Images)
When Mendoza was only 4 years old, her 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. He has spent the last few years in a wheelchair.
Elsa Mendoza wrote about the experience in a 2015 letter to her children that was published in The Players Tribune.
“I was diagnosed about 18 years ago, but of course you never knew. You and Alberto were very young and I was fine… and above all I didn’t want you to worry. It felt like something impossible to attribute to you. To my sweet children. And then I continued to do well until about 10 years ago, when we went skiing and I broke my ankle and knee,” she wrote.
“But even after that, I wasn’t ready to tell you, just that my leg hadn’t fully healed, which was why your mom was limping. It wasn’t until five years ago, when I contracted Covid, that things started to go downhill in a way that I couldn’t hide it anymore. It was during football season, and I realized I wasn’t going to be able to travel. And the idea of you wondering if I’d support you less, because suddenly I wasn’t at your games? I hated that. So That’s when I knew we had to sit you and your brother down.”
INDIANA FOOTBALL STAR AND HIS BROTHER TURN THEIR HOME BURGER INTO A BATTLE AGAINST 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, Florida, on January 19, 2026. (Megan Briggs/Getty Images)
He went on to recall, “How difficult the conversation ended up being. ‘Your mom has this degenerative disease… and while we don’t know how it will progress, it will start to affect us in various ways. But it won’t affect us in the ways that matter. We will have each other, we will love each other, and we will be there for each other. I promise.'”
Both of 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 gold medalist at the 1987 World Junior Championships.
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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, Florida, on January 19, 2026. (Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
But Mendoza’s father also played soccer when he was younger and was a teammate in Miami Hurricanes Head coach Mario Cristobal at Christopher Columbus High School during the 1980s. Mendoza would defeat his father’s former teammate in this year’s CFP national championship.
Meanwhile, his mother played tennis at the University of Miami.
