As a young quarterback starting his career as a backup, Las Vegas Raiders rookie Fernando Mendoza isn’t bored on the sideline — he’s burning.
CBS Sports posted a seven-second clip of Mendoza during the Raiders’ Week 2 win over the Los Angeles Chargers where he was seen yawning on the sidelines. It garnered over 4.5 million views across CBS Sports’ social media channels.
For some, it was seen as a sign of boredom from the No. 1 overall pick who is waiting for his chance to play as the backup behind Kirk Cousins to start the season.
However, there is a prior explanation that requires no revision: he idles hot.
Appearing on Maxx Crosby’s podcast before training camp in July, Mendoza said that he has caught himself yawning on gameday. Mendoza shared insight from seeing a mental coach that his yawning wasn’t a signal of fatigue, but rather his body catching its breath and cooling his brain.
“As a quarterback you need to be so cerebral, and there’s been some games that — I have a lot of passion when I play — and I run hot sometimes,” Mendoza said. “There’s one time before a game I yawned and I was freaking out. I was like, ‘How am I tired? I slept like nine hours.’ It’s like, ‘Hey, that’s just your body getting more oxygen.’”
During the episode, Mendoza, obsessed with optimization, broke down the “activation level” he sets during pregame so his body doesn’t work itself up too much and lead him to playing uncontrollably, running around trying to make “Superman” plays. His focus: setting a level where his body and mind work in tandem, neither outracing the other.
“I already know, the game is going to get me up to that point, where my nervous system is going to be firing, I’m going to get a little bit of the tingles, which means my body is ready to compete and ready to win,” he said, adding that having a mental coach has helped him learn to read his body and how to bottle that energy.
Mindful breathes are part of that regiment, but don’t be surprised by the occasional yawn.
“It’s little tips and tricks like that (breathing), that I’m tweaking, really just trying to do everything I possibly can to best serve my teammates,” he said.
Contact Trevor Squire at tsquire@reviewjournal.com. Follow him at @trevordsquire on X.
