When Fernando Mendoza accepted the Heisman Trophy in December, he spoke Spanish for his grandparents during his speech. His grandmother was gleaming with joy and blowing kisses to him on stage.
When Mendoza showed up to the NFL scouting combine in February, he proudly posed for photos with a Cuban flag, extending it across his 76 3/4-inch wingspan in one image and draping it over his shoulders in another.
On Thursday night, Mendoza, the quarterback who led the Indiana Hoosiers to their first national title last season, is widely expected to be the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft to the Las Vegas Raiders.
When Commissioner Roger Goodell calls his name, it will be a milestone moment for the Hispanic/Latino community in football — and for South Florida, as Miami’s own will be the top prospect selected.
Take a look through a list of No. 1 picks in NFL draft history. You won’t find a Hispanic last name.
Jim Plunkett, drafted out of Stanford to the New England Patriots No. 1 in 1971 and who later led the Raiders to two Super Bowls, is Mexican-American. One would have to know that about him, though, as his last name comes from his Irish-German paternal grandfather.
The name Mendoza is unmistakable, and it will forever be in the company of the others selected first in the draft.
I grew up in the same general area as Mendoza in Miami. My high school, Southwest, is one of the two nearest public schools to Mendoza’s, Columbus.
Hispanic kids from southwest Miami-Dade County, specifically Cuban-Americans, have their best shot at making it in baseball. And if some want to play football, that’s nice, but the odds are even more stacked against that youngster to have any kind of future in his sport.
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I also covered high school football and recruiting in South Florida for nearly a decade before I began covering the Miami Dolphins full time. As prolific as South Florida is at producing NFL talent, the dense Hispanic/Latino population in the region is largely exempt from that football prowess.
Seeing a kid who could play football but had a Hispanic last name could easily be an immediate turn-off in college football recruiting, simply because it hasn’t been seen very often. I, a Cuban-American, might be guilty of it myself in evaluating those prospects in my time. I’d probably find a player and think, he’s a nice high school player but not really a legitimate college prospect.
Mendoza started his high school career in Miami at Belen Jesuit and transferred to Columbus to escape the passing limitations of the Wing-T offense and be in a more pro-style attack. Even as the Explorers were perennial state championship contenders and he was surrounded by recruits at other positions, the quarterback was still overlooked.
Mendoza took his one Power-5 scholarship offer to California, rose to start for the Golden Bears in 2023 and 2024 after a redshirt 2022 season and then transferred to Indiana as the missing piece for the Hoosiers to finish 16-0. They completed a title-winning season by defeating the Miami Hurricanes, his dream school back home which was among those to look the other way, at Hard Rock Stadium.
After years of not getting picked — fitting he goes to the Raiders, which have Tom Brady as minority owner — Mendoza is now bound to be the first pick. And he’s doing it playing football’s most important position.
He’s no trailblazer as a Hispanic quarterback. There’s Plunkett, Jeff Garcia, Tony Romo, Mark Sanchez among those before him. But the moment Mendoza is selected first, 55 years after Plunkett, can be groundbreaking for the future of Hispanic quarterbacks, who can now see someone who looks like them and has a last name like theirs achieve that feat.
Black quarterbacks have come a long way in overcoming stigmas that historically pigeonholed them — and maybe still do to an extent — to now represent roughly half the starters in the NFL. Maybe the Hispanic quarterback can be next to rise behind Mendoza.
Coming from South Florida, Mendoza is the next quarterback to follow the likes of Lamar Jackson, Geno Smith, Jacoby Brissett, Tyler “Snoop” Huntley and Mike White as the region has graduated from merely being a hotbed for athletes on the outside to developing pro prospects at all positions.
No, Mendoza won’t be donning his Cuban flag walking across the stage to shake the commissioner’s hand at the draft in Pittsburgh on Thursday night. Mendoza decided to stay home and celebrate with friends and family in Miami, citing to Rich Eisen Show it was easier on his mother, who uses a wheelchair due to multiple sclerosis, to avoid the stressful travel of getting in and out of Pittsburgh before, presumably, going across the country to Vegas on Friday morning.
Mendoza has gone on a Miami tour in recent weeks leading up to his first big NFL moment. On Tuesday, he threw out the first pitch at the Marlins’ game against the St. Louis Cardinals. Earlier this week, he returned to Columbus High with the Heisman Trophy. He attended the Miami Heat’s home finale April 12, gifted a personalized No. 15 Heat jersey while his younger brother, who has broadcast aspirations, was on the microphone and jumbotron during breaks in the action hyping up fans.