Why Fernando Mendoza did not attend the 2026 NFL Draft

The presumptive No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft will not be attending the live event in person.

Mendoza will be at home with his family, he told Alex Sherman on the CNBC Sport podcast. He’ll be dressed as if he’s on a stage in Pittsburgh.

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“I’ll be wearing a BOSS suit,” Mendoza said. “Although I’m not going to be at the draft, I want to do my best to be an elite partner, and do everything possible to try to help the NFL. I stayed at home because of a family decision.

“We did a lot of travel this year — my mother wanted to stay home, we always joke that it’s her party, not really mine — and I thought it would be the best decision to have everybody there, the village that’s poured into me to get to this point of success, to have them there.”

Mendoza’s mother has multiple sclerosis. The degenerative nerve disease confined Elsa Mendoza to a wheelchair. That didn’t stop her from attending her son’s games over the past year as Indiana marched to a national championship.

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Indiana defeated Miami at Hard Rock Stadium, near where the Mendozas live in Florida, for the national championship in January. But Fernando traveling to Pittsburgh for the NFL draft would be too much for her to make.