Fernando Mendoza is just weeks away from hearing his name called as the potential No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft but now he’s trending for all the wrong reasons.
The Indiana Hoosiers star quarterback is coming off a dream season. He won the 2025 Heisman Trophy, led his team to a perfect 13–0 record, and capped it off with a National Championship.
But like many players before him, Mendoza is now facing the modern draft nightmare: old posts resurfacing at the worst possible moment.
The incident traces back to 2020. LeBron James shared a split image on Instagram, one side showing officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on George Floyd’s neck, other showing Colin Kaepernick kneeling during the anthem.
Among the thousands of comments was a response from then-17-year-old Fernando Mendoza. In disagreement with LeBron, he wrote:
“You need to explain the context of the first photo of the cop on the man, because you never know what he did wrong .”
Chauvin was later convicted of murder and civil rights violations and is currently serving more than 20 years in prison. With that in mind, many fans feel Mendoza’s old comment even if he was a teenager at the time.
Draft analysts are already wondering if this will affect his stock. Some believe teams will brush it off as a youthful mistake. Others think franchises especially a team like the Raiders.
Mendoza has not yet commented on the resurfaced post, but NFL fans and media outlets are watching closely.Will this be nothing more than a brief social media storm, or will it become a major storyline heading.