The Las Vegas Raiders are widely expected to select reigning Heisman Trophy winner Fernado Mendoza, who is coming off a national championship victory with the Indiana Hoosiers, with the first overall pick in the 2026 NFL draft.
However, some alleged past comments from Mendoza have resurfaced relating to civil rights figure George Floyd, who was murdered when an officer pressed a knee down on his neck, restricting his breathing.
“You need to explain the context of the first photo of the cop on the man, because you never know what he did wrong,” Mendoza allegedly commented on an Instagram post alluding to cases like George Floyd being why protests like Colin Kaepernick’s were necessary.
> Fernando Mendoza is under fire following a resurfaced comment he made on LeBron James’ post about George Floyd:
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> “You need to explain the context of the first photo of the cop on the man, because you never know what he did wrong 🤷♂️” [pic.twitter.com/hFGAhGoEUp](https://t.co/hFGAhGoEUp)
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> — Pop Crave (@PopCrave) [April 8, 2026](https://twitter.com/PopCrave/status/2041928059289317633?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
People reacted to the comments on social media.
“He literally looks like a guy from a 1950s sundown town, this is unsurprising,” one person wrote on Twitter.
“You’re telling me the Miami Cuban who’s deeply religious and has a LinkedIn he’s active on is conservative?” one person asked sarcastically.
“I knew that dude was weird af,” another person wrote.
It’ll be interesting to see if Mendoza addresses the alleged comments ahead of the NFL draft, as anything that is perceived negatively by the public has the potential to affect his draft stock.