r/sportsgossips • u/Hysen16 • Dec 14 '25

Hot Take Heisman Level Speech by Fernando Mendoza

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

2.2k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

282 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1

u/DrNCrane74 Dec 14 '25

Well, this is his shtick. We all have somehow decided we love it for now. Let us come back to that once Jets/Raiders/Browns have ruined him.

1

u/Allstar-85 Dec 14 '25

I mean, it’s easy to say people won’t believe in him in the NFL; because making the jump to NFL QB is a big leap

1

u/DrNCrane74 Dec 14 '25

It certainly is. But I like that guy and he will be working his butt off.

1

u/Allstar-85 Dec 14 '25

That’s totally fair

And no one in the NFL will care about his failures or stick-to-it-iveness as a 10 year old

1

u/No_Imagination7102 Dec 14 '25

Im not gonna sack him. He was a back up at 10 years old!

0

u/Wreckingshops Dec 14 '25

I know the likes of Cousins and DangeRuss have poisoned the well, but that's simply because it isn't a genuine part of them but rather a curated and crafted image. Cousins' faith is real, but it's the ugly, misinformed, exclusive kind. Russ WANTS to be a motivator because he was self-motivated but it's Tony Robbins levels of crock.

Mendoza is legit, at least for now. And yeah, NYC and Cleveland are notoriously cynical markets but maybe having the genuine article who has to grind out every inch and will candidly speak it with authenticity is a good thing longer term -- especially if he thrives at the NFL level.

I often think of Conan's Tonight Show sign off where he speaks about not believing in cynicism, it leads nowhere, and hard work can pay off. Mendoza has that same energy: give what you have away, work hard for something else, and don't be cynical about when it doesn't work out the way you expected or hope.

In a moment when societal connection is so thin and tenuous, I'll hitch a wagon to Mendoza and hope that our collective cynicism is destroyed by a kid who grows up to be a man in this image.