Tom Brady Has a Message for Fernando Mendoza Before NFL Draft 

The 2026 NFL Draft is set to begin Thursday night, and Fernando Mendoza is widely expected to be the No. 1 pick of the Las Vegas Raiders. 

That means the Indiana quarterback will be joining an organization partly owned by Tom Brady, who knows a little about playing the position himself. 

Here is what came out of their first conversation earlier this spring. 

The GOAT and the future? 

Mendoza appeared on The Dan Patrick Show on Wednesday morning in an interview that was taped earlier this week. 

During the course of the chat with Patrick, the Miami, Fla., native revealed he actually grew up rooting for the New England Patriots because his father did his medical residency in Boston when Mendoza was young. 

That was a pretty good time to adopt the Pats, of course, as they were in the midst of winning six Super Bowls in 18 years (2001-18). 

Tom Brady was the signal-caller for all of those titles, and now he is likely to be one of Mendoza’s bosses because he is a part-owner of the Raiders in addition to his work as an NFL analyst for Fox Sports.

It’s a pairing that figures to get a lot of scrutiny since both are associated with winning (the Raiders? Not so much lately…) and the most important position in sports.

Brady pledges to help top pick

Brady won an NFL-record seven Super Bowls, and Mendoza is the reigning champion at the college level after leading Indiana’s stunning rise from losingest team in college football the College Football Playoff winner. 

So what was their first meeting like? 

“It was fantastic,” Mendoza told Patrick of a pre-draft visit Mendoza took to Las Vegas. “It was fantastic. He gave me the message that he's going to push me, and he's not going to be all lovey-dovey, and that if the Raiders draft me, he is going to be a mentor and offer support for whatever quarterback the Raiders draft whether it's me, whether they draft somebody else.” 

RELATED: Mendoza takes on fitting endorsement deal

Will it work? 

The Raiders have made two playoff appearances since losing the Super Bowl at the end of the 2002 season, when they were still based in Oakland. 

The last was five years ago when they lost in the first round to the Cincinnati Bengals, so they are due for some success in a league built for parity. 

But if anyone can change the course of a team, perhaps it is Mendoza. Prior to his arrival in Bloomington, the Hoosiers had never won a national title, and they were almost 60 years removed from their last Big Ten championship. 

READ MORE: Why Indiana's national title was so insane

With the help of head coach Curt Cignetti and a great supporting cast on both sides of the ball, Mendoza ended that string of futility so betting against him — especially in Vegas — might not be smart. 

The draft begins Thursday night and continues Friday night and Saturday afternoon. 

The Brady example

Great players have a mixed record as executives in many sports, but Brady knows a thing or two about being the QB to change a franchise’s fortunes. 

The Patriots had 10 playoff appearances and no championships in their 40 seasons before Brady arrived in 2000 from Michigan. 

Like Mendoza, he was something of a rags-to-riches story, though Mendoza became a household name earlier in his football life thanks to his one super season at Indiana. 

Brady was far from anonymous as the quarterback at Michigan in the late 1990s, but he entered the NFL as just a sixth-round pick and had to wait his turn behind Drew Bledsoe before becoming the starter at quarterback in 2001 when Bledsoe was injured. 

That season ended with Brady’s first of seven Super Bowl victories.