At the NFL Draft tonight, projected no. 1 pick Fernando Mendoza will be watching from his home in Miami, Florida with his family. “We’re going to have to hop on a plane the next morning anyways,” the quarterback said. “And for that travel, it would be a lot easier to stay at home.”
The 22-year-old is close with his parents and younger brothers. “I’m so proud to be able to play for them. They’re my ‘why,’” he told The Herald-Times of his family. Here, get to know Fernando Mendoza’s family:
Elsa was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2007. “Your accomplishments will NEVER impact how proud of you I am,” Elsa wrote in a tribute to her son in December. “Because you are already everything I could have hoped for as a mother.... and that has nothing to do with the miles you throw or the touchdowns you score. It has everything to do with the man you’ve grown into.”
Fernando credits his mother, who was a college tennis player at the University of Miami, for his career. “You’ve always been my biggest fan,” Fernando told his mom when he won the Heisman Trophy. “You’re my life. You’re my why. You’ve always been my biggest supporter. Your sacrifices, courage, love, my first playbook, my playbook I’m going to carry through my side my entire life.”
Fernando’s dad, also Fernando, played high school football in Miami before joining the rowing team at Brown University. He now works in pediatric emergency medicine at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami.
Alberto, born in September 2005, also plays college football. He was Fernando’s backup quarterback at Indiana. “This is an opportunity of a lifetime. Not a lot of people get to play college football with their brother. It’s such a special moment for my family and I,” Fernando told the Big Ten Network in December 2025. “It’s an opportunity that I knew when I entered the transfer portal, I could not take for granted. This is a moment that we’ll be talking about for the rest of our lives.”
After the Mendoza brothers won the National Championship, Alberto entered the NCAA transfer portal. “I am always confident that Alberto Mendoza is going to be the best college football quarterback,” Fernadno said during a press conference. “I know how good he is.”
Fernando and Alberto’s youngest brother, Max, doesn’t play football, but reportedly has aspirations of working in sports broadcasting. He is still in high school.