Fernando Mendoza on His Emotional Mindset Heading into the NFL Draft

Fernando Mendoza is 72 hours from hearing his name called, and Rich wants to know what is going through his head. The Indiana quarterback says his friends and family have been sending him the clips of Rich talking about him, and he wants Rich to know it has meant something in the Mendoza household. Rich tells him he meant every word. Every single word.

Then Rich introduces him to a household phrase. Nervous-cited. It is what Rich and Suzy use with their kids, that hybrid of nervous and excited that does not have a clean English word yet. Mendoza laughs, asks if it is in Webster's, and then takes it for a spin in the next sentence. He is nervous-cited. The draft is a celebration, he says, but it is the celebration of a start, not a finish. He is ready for the new journey.

The gravity has been settling in on the top-30 visits. Walking into NFL facilities, Mendoza tells Rich, is when the realization landed. In two weeks he is going to be an NFL quarterback. Get ready to rock and roll.

Rich asks about the first memory of dreaming of this. Mendoza takes him to Hard Rock Stadium, watching the Dolphins host the Patriots when Ryan Tannehill and Matt Moore were the Miami quarterbacks. Mostly, though, he was watching the other guy. Tom Brady. That was the moment he decided he wanted to be on that field one day.

Which brings the conversation to the present. Brady is a Raiders owner now, and Mendoza is one of the quarterbacks Las Vegas could pick. Rich asks what it would mean to that kid in the Hard Rock seats to play on a Brady team. Mendoza says it would mean the world. He knows Brady has said he is going to pour into whatever quarterback the Raiders take, or whoever they sign like Kirk Cousins. He grins at the gap between fantasy and reality. It would not be the way 6-year-old Fernando pictured it, where he and Tom were best friends. But Brady would be a boss, and Mendoza wants to be pushed by exactly that kind of presence to become the best quarterback he can be.

Rich asks if it is true that Brady FaceTimed in on Mendoza's combine interview with the Raiders. Yes, Mendoza confirms. About 15 seconds. Hello, good luck, wishing you the best. Mendoza tells Rich most owners do not call into combine interviews at all, let alone show up on FaceTime. The involvement from the top down, he says, was invigorating. He sounds ready.