Las Vegas Raiders rookie Fernando Mendoza is making a difference in the lives of many by funding $500,000 to the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine for multiple sclerosis research. The gift was also a tribute to his mother, Elsa, who lives with MS.
The Mendoza family members were present at the University of Miami on Thursday. His mother, Elsa, who is wheelchair bound, made the cross-country trip to Las Vegas to be with her son on this special day with the Raiders. The timeline couldn’t be more special as the National MS Society was celebrating 80 years of funding the research behind every FDA-approved MS therapy.
Signed to a four-year, $57,270,598 deal, an emotional Mendoza shared what his mother told him about toughness.
“Today isn’t about football. It’s about my mom,” Mendoza said via news release from the National MS Society. “When I accepted the Heisman Trophy, I said she showed me what real toughness looks like. I might have been talking about football, but I was really talking about life.”
Once Mendoza was picked first overall in the draft, the Raiders rookie was already looking forward to contributing to multiple sclerosis research. The cause is close to his heart and builds on the years of work by his family in tribute to his mother.
“I believe one of my pillars and my identities is giving back and helping fight MS, giving to the community,” Mendoza told The Associated Press. “So that was a huge part of my identity, and it’s something that our family really wanted to do.”
According to National MS Society’s chief research and medical affairs officer, Dr. Bruce Bebo, the donation will help bridge the gap between taking a lab solution and preparing it in such a way that it becomes affordable for nearly one million people who suffer from MS.
The fund from the Mendoza family will be used to launch a first-of-its-kind MS stem cell transplantation trial this fall. Mendoza’s $500K donation adds to his family’s constant contribution of more than $414,000, taking the total to over $940,000.
Fernando Mendoza Announced Big Ten Athlete of the Year
Fernando Mendoza led the Indiana Hoosiers to an undefeated season, winning the national championship by beating the Miami Hurricanes in the final of the College Football Playoffs. He also won the Heisman Trophy and went first overall in the draft.
The accolades keep coming as Mendoza claimed one more honor. On Wednesday, he was announced as the 2025-2026 Big Ten Jesse Owens Male Athlete of the Year. He became the sixth Hoosier to win that honor and the first since track and field’s Derek Drouin in 2013.
Moreover, the Raiders quarterback is only the fourth player in the common draft era to have won the Heisman, a national championship, and then go No. 1 overall in the same season. Joe Burrow, Jameis Winston, and Cam Newton are the other players to accomplish the rare feat.
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