Las Vegas Raiders top pick Fernando Mendoza got a shoutout from President Donald Trump despite not being in attendance for Indiana’s White House visit Monday to honor the national champions.
Mendoza was in Henderson at the team facility where the rookies were scheduled to report for the second phase of the offseason program.
The Raiders did not have an official practice scheduled, so there was some social media confusion about his decision to not go to the White House with his former college teammates.
Team officials, however, confirmed he was in the facility along with the rest of the rookies, a group that includes multiple former Hoosiers who were also absent from the event in Washington.
During the ceremony, Trump claimed Mendoza had called him to discuss his reasons for not attending. Representatives for Mendoza did not immediately return requests for confirmation of the call.
“He was so nice,” Trump said. “He called because actually…(he’s) a big fan of ours. You wouldn’t believe it because he didn’t show up. I’m not happy, but that’s OK. The reason he didn’t is because he’s at spring training, right?”
Indiana coach Curt Cignetti appeared to confirm Trump’s assertion.
Trump continued by saying he approved of Mendoza practicing because “he’s got to win. And I think he’s going to win pretty early.”
Cignetti was then asked by Trump whether he agreed Mendoza was going to be successful in the NFL.
“Time will tell,” the coach said.
Trump admitted he would not have been so kind about Mendoza’s absence had they not had a positive conversation.
“If I didn’t do that, believe me, I wouldn’t have even talked about him,” Trump said. “If he was not here for other reasons like he didn’t like Trump or didn’t want to come, I wouldn’t have even mentioned him. I’d go through the whole (speech), I’d talk about how great (the team was), I wouldn’t even mention the quarterback’s name. But he’s a great guy actually, and he is actually a big fan of what we’re doing for our country.”
Trump went on to cite some of Mendoza’s stats and accomplishments in his one season at Indiana where he led the Hoosiers to an undefeated season and the school’s first national championship while also earning the first Heisman Trophy in program history.
“Fernando couldn’t be here today because as I said he’s now a member of the Las Vegas Raiders and let’s see how good a team they have,” Trump said. “I think he’s going to do great. He’s a winner.”
Mendoza had previously announced he planned to choose work over attending the White House event.
“I believe May 11 is the first day of OTAs, if I’m not mistaken. I’ve got to check Teamworks,” he joked last week of the sports scheduling and operations app when asked about his plans during a rookie minicamp news conference. “If it is on the first day of OTAs, I’m on the bottom of the totem pole here. I’ve got to prove myself. I can’t miss practice. I don’t know anything official. I don’t have the calendar, but I just wouldn’t. As a rookie, I don’t think that’s a good look, and I want to try to best serve my teammates. And I don’t know if that’d be accomplishing that goal.”
Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on X.
