CRAWFORD | At NFL Combine, 'unemployed' Fernando Mendoza is no typical job applicant | Sports

INDIANAPOLIS (WDRB) -- Fernando Mendoza walked into the NFL Scouting Combine like a man applying for a summer job at the hardware store.

"Right now, I'm unemployed," he said cheerfully. "I have no job."

This is technically true in the same way that Mount Everest is technically a hill. Mendoza may not have a job, but he does have a waiting list of billion-dollar employers and a future office that comes with 300-pound coworkers whose job description is to keep him alive.

Somewhere, a Las Vegas accountant is warming up the calculator.

Mendoza, projected to go No. 1 to the Raiders, talked like a polite applicant hoping to hear back soon. No swagger. No "face of the franchise" proclamations. Just gratitude, humility, and the calm demeanor of a man who understands that in the NFL, confidence is admired but entitlement is taxable.

He also talked about Radiers' co-owner Tom Brady within minutes, which is what you do when your future boss owns seven rings and the ghost of his résumé.

"Who hasn't admired Tom Brady?" Mendoza said, sounding less like a rival and more like a kid who just got to shake hands with the principal.

He called Brady "the greatest quarterback of all time, by a wide margin." Which is the sort of thing you say when the greatest quarterback of all time may soon be approving your expense reports.

"To be mentored by him would mean so much," he said.

He even noted he'd exchanged a brief hello with Brady on the phone. For Mendoza, who has long professed his fandom of and admiration for Brady, it was like a rookie actor getting a nod from Meryl Streep in the hallway.

If this is theater, Mendoza is playing the role of the respectful heir, not the conquering prince.

What he does project is control, the kind coaches and general managers crave in a position where panic spreads faster than flu season. Asked about leadership, he didn't talk about speeches or charisma. He talked about performance.

"If you want to lead, you first have to play well," he said. "Then you earn the respect of your teammates."

It's not flashy. It's not viral. It is, however, exactly what Raiders decision-makers want to hear from someone they may soon entrust with a franchise's mood swings for the next decade.

He spoke about discipline, preparation, chemistry, details — all the unromantic things that win games and put quarterbacks on cereal boxes later. He thanked Indianapolis. He praised teammates. He refused to take the bait on draft status, repeating that anything could happen.

In other words, he behaved like a man who has studied not just defenses but history.

Mendoza is not taking part in drills at The Combine. He'll perform for scouts later at Indiana's Pro Day in Bloomington. So there was no measure of speed, strength and arm talent on this day. But there was a measurement of composure under the strangest kind of pressure: the knowledge that one sentence can become a headline, one stumble can become a narrative, and one team's belief – or lack of it -- can reshape your life overnight.

Mendoza passed that test easily. He did not promise championships. He did not guarantee greatness. He did not sound like a man auditioning to replace Brady.

He sounded like someone hoping to earn the chance to try.

Sure, he's unemployed now. Give it a few weeks. Someone will hand him a helmet, a playbook and the hopes of a city that has been unemployed at quarterback for years.

The interview is over. Las Vegas appears ready to make him an offer he won't even think about refusing. A city built on chanc is about to place a bet on a guy who at least sounds like a sure thing.