Don’t Bust For Me, Fernando
I must once again preface a blog with the fact that I am not a draft person or a scout. I do not judge prospects as I do not have the desire or drive to put the effort in to learn about hundreds of dudes who will be mostly irrelevant to me. I will wait and learn about them when they earn relevance to me.
That said I like Fernando as a prospect. I think he’s got The Juice ™. He’s quite possibly the corniest player we’ve had since Russ. The man posted on LinkedIn about his championship the day after Indiana won. That’s terminal levels of grindset brainrot, the kind of absurd brainrot someone needs to be a success at the highest of levels. Every superstar is a psycho in some way. Fernando is most definitely a psycho. It makes him a weirdo, but it also gives him that turbo drive that leads to success in these weird fields.
What I don’t know is if he’s good enough to save The Raiders or if the Raiders will succeed in building around him. The Raiders are a disaster that I don’t believe we talk about enough. Ever since the Gruden scandal, the team has been a mess from the top down (and arguably hiring Gruden in the first place was questionable). They had success with Rich Bisaccia at the interim and then went and hired Josh McDaniels. McDaniels once again proved he’s only good at being the Patriots OC and forced out yet another talented veteran QB, the team was abysmal, and McDaniels got axed. They replaced him with Antonio Pierce, who got the full-time job one year later because he managed to beat the Chiefs as Interim. That was a disaster, as Pierce didn’t seem to give a shit.
Last year was supposed to be a fix. They hired Pete, brought his QB down from Seattle, and looked to be on the right track. Look what happened. So now we have Klint Kubiak and Fernando Mendoza as the soon to be QB. Maxx Crosby wants out. The Raiders are trying again. I don’t have much faith. The Kubiak hire feels like the right move and Fernando the no-brainer. But they’ve disappointed us before. Will they get anything else right?
I hope Fernando is good. Corny as he is, he’s a nice balance to swag and he’s not boring. It would be really funny if Sin City corrupts him too. Three years in and he’s got sleeve tats, smokes, and dates a Kardashian or an instagram model.
Oh and congrats to Indiana, I guess. What a fun season that was.
The Raiders would be smart to sit Fernando. If they still have Geno, he should be the starter to give him time to adjust.
That said, I don’t have faith in the Raiders to be smart in any organization decisions.
I don’t think we, as a society, are prepared for how annoying Fernando Mendoza will be if he succeeds at the pro level.
He’s already carrying himself like hyperpop Tom Brady when it took Tom Brady many years to become that off-putting
I don’t see what’s so bad about his personality.
It’s either extremely manicured and fake, or he’s a true zoomer grindset psycho. Not sure which is worse, but both are bad.
Could be worse, it could be the Jets.
I hope Mendoza is the next Philip Rivers. He seems like more of a goof than the straight weirdo Russ was. The Raiders also have Brady to help steer the ship and mentor a promising QB.
Also, learning afterwards about how Russ acted within the team dynamics wouldn’t make me wish someone like him on anyone.
If he is to be the next Ringless, it seems an almost unnecessarily cruel and abnormal torture for him to go to a team part-owned by The Ringest.
It’s really incredible how far the Raiders have fallen. Before the Cowboy’s 90’s dynasty started they had the best winning percentage in the Super Bowl era and multiple rings. You could make the argument that they were the best team Super Bowl era team up to that point. Since 2002, they’ve had the second-worst winning percentage, with only the Browns being worse, and have failed to win a single playoff game.
Decades of domination followed by decades of complete irrelevance. Hopefully Mendoza and Kubiak is the turnaround.
I find it disturbing I’ve met a lot of women at bars who look and talk exactly like that. I even had several voices ready in my head for her line. Not sure if it’s good or bad I never slept with any of them
…
If Mendoza is good, I’d love to see a wholesome follow up comic of their blossoming relationship.