Las Vegas Raiders punter AJ Cole is making sure all of the haters know the truth about Fernando Mendoza
The Las Vegas Raiders have their quarterback, and he’s exactly how you think he is.
The Las Vegas Raiders are about to be in a bit of a dead period. They just finished months of minicamps and organized team activities spread out throughout that timeframe. So they do deserve the dead period before training camp starts.
So, in this dead period, we will probably learn a lot more about some of the new players on the team. There will be podcast episodes, TV appearances, media runs with the Raiders media, and the personalities will really start to show more. One that we don’t really need to see more of to know what Vegas is getting is Fernando Mendoza. Some think it’s a bit—the way he acts. It’s certainly not.
Raiders punter AJ Cole talks QB Fernando Mendoza
“I’m very impressed,” AJ Cole told reporters this week. “I think he is just exactly what you see is what you get. It’s kind of a funny thing, in the offseason when you’re hanging out with people, friends, family, whatever, that’s the question, right? It’s like, ‘Oh, what’s Fernando [Mendoza] like? Oh, what’s he like?’ That’s like the question I’m getting from whoever I’m hanging out with, and that’s just the answer I keep telling people: whatever you think he’s like, that’s exactly what he’s like.
“It’s not a bit. It’s not an act. He’s extremely genuine, he’s extremely authentic, he’s extremely motivated, and I think that he’s done a fantastic job of not coming in here with too much on his shoulders, just saying, ‘I want to be a great teammate. I want to help the team win, and I want to learn. I want to do whatever I can.’ … We don’t need him to be Superman. We just need him to be Fernando.”
We have all seen the personality. The schedule release video may have been acting, but the acting was dang near identical to the real thing. He is a big nerd who’s serious about football, but also a very loving and caring dude. There’s not much more to Mendoza. He’s exactly what you see.