Fernando Mendoza faces criticism weeks before the 2026 NFL Draft over an alleged social media comment about George Floyd from 2020.
The Indiana quarterback is expected to be the No. 1 pick to the Las Vegas Raiders. He’s been in the spotlight for months after leading the Hoosiers to an unbeaten season and national championship.
An old Instagram comment allegedly made by Mendoza has now gone viral. The comment was reportedly left on a 2020 post by LeBron James about Floyd’s death.
The Alleged Comment
The resurfaced post from James showed two photos side by side. One image showed police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd during the arrest that killed him in Minneapolis in May 2020. The other showed former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick kneeling during the national anthem.
James captioned the post “This…Is Why.”
Mendoza, who would have been in high school at the time, allegedly commented: “You need to explain the context of the first photo of the cop on the man, because you never know what he did wrong.”
Chauvin was later convicted of unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter in Floyd’s death.
Social Media Response
The alleged comment resurfaced on social media just weeks before the NFL Draft. An X post from the account “Pop Crave” sharing the comment received over 10 million impressions.
Fernando Mendoza is under fire following a resurfaced comment he made on LeBron James’ post about George Floyd:
“You need to explain the context of the first photo of the cop on the man, because you never know what he did wrong ” pic.twitter.com/hFGAhGoEUp
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) April 8, 2026
The timing puts additional scrutiny on Mendoza as NFL teams conduct final evaluations before the draft. The quarterback had been widely considered the consensus top pick after his championship season at Indiana.
