Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza declined to attend the 2026 NFL Draft in person for a very personal reason.
“My mom really wanted to do it at home and so did my parents,” Mendoza said Monday, April 20, on ESPN’s The Rich Eisen Show. “It’s a lot easier for us, especially with the family situation.”
Mendoza’s mother, Elsa, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2007 and currently uses a wheelchair.
“We’d have to hop on a plane the next morning anyway,” Mendoza continued. “For 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.”
The 2026 NFL Draft is taking place at Pittsburgh’s 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.
“We’re going to roast an entire pig,” Fernando told Kay Adams on Monday’s episode of her show, Up & Adams. “We’re going to eat every part of the pig. It’s going to be a cool experience. We did it back when we played UCLA this year and a lot of the teammates enjoyed it … Everyone had pork sandwiches and it was just an awesome experience.”
Adams, 40, exclaimed, “What do you mean every bit of a pig?”
“Alright, not every bit,” Fernando clarified. “But it’s 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’s a couple of my uncles who are very into it. It’s a whole 24-hour process.”
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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’s Hard Rock Stadium when her son helped guide the Indiana Hoosiers to the school’s first-ever national championship in football.
“My mother is my light, she’s my everything. She’s my why,” Fernando told reporters at a press conference before the national championship game. “A lot of football players talk about ‘who’s their why,’ 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.”
He added, “She’s been a great role model to myself and I really just can’t thank her enough. I’m so proud to be her son. I wouldn’t want any other mother in the world.”
