Fernando Mendoza was open about his admiration for Tom Brady long before he was the No. 1 overall pick for the Las Vegas Raiders. Now that he’s a part of the organization for which Brady is a minority owner, the rookie quarterback is being mentored by his football idol.
Of course, it’s a dream come true for Mendoza, and what better mentor for a young quarterback than arguably the greatest quarterback of all time? However, while Brady had a career that gave him plenty of knowledge to pass forward, he knows he can’t quite relate to some things about Mendoza’s path.
Brady made that clear on a recent episode of the Stick to Football podcast. He was asked about how Mendoza is handling the pressure of being the No. 1 pick, which is something that Brady didn’t experience. He explained that it’s a lot of pressure on Mendoza, so he’s doing a lot of mentoring.
Tom Brady compares Fernando Mendoza’s expectations to Peyton Manning
Since Brady can’t pull from his own experiences for this, he’s leaning on the story of one of his favorite quarterbacks and rivals: Peyton Manning. Brady explained that he always appreciated and loved how Manning outperformed his high expectations with a formula of will and determination.
The Raiders’ minority owner explained that Mendoza’s journey will look more like Manning’s because of the expectations they inherited as the first pick.
Brady was then specifically asked what his advice has been to the young quarterback. The legendary quarterback explained that he and Mendoza talk all the time, and that he spends a lot of time asking Mendoza the questions to figure out what the young player needs.
Ultimately, Brady detailed that he breaks his mentorship with Mendoza up into three different buckets: The first bucket is the physical development; the two just work on the actual physical part of being a quarterback (throwing the ball, footwork, diet, training, etc.).
The second bucket is the mental part, where the focus is all about the part of the game that’s played between the ears. Brady is making sure Mendoza not only has a good grasp of the playbook, but that the rookie understands the plans and strategy of what it is Las Vegas is trying to do.
And the final bucket is the emotional part, which Brady said is “the touchy part about sports and athletes.” He explained that everyone has emotional volatility, but the more you can minimize it, the better you can be under center in the NFL.
So it’s clear that Mendoza, Brady, and the Raiders organization have a laid-out plan to develop the rookie quarterback, and that’s why fans are excited to eventually see the No. 1 pick on the field.
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