Las Vegas Raiders QB Fernando Mendoza is learning about leadership from a very unusual mentor.
Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Fernando Mendoza is being put through the ringer by his new teammates right now, but in a good way. Part of this is about preparing Mendoza for a leadership role, and defensive end Maxx Crosby had some advice for his new quarterback when he had him on his podcast, which is called The Rush, according to a report from Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk.
The leadership part started when Crosby asked Mendoza about his relationship with veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins. Mendoza said that Cousins has been generous about sharing advice based on his previous stops in Washington, Minnesota and Atlanta, and Mendoza said one of his biggest takeaways from Cousins is that he needs to be genuinely himself in order to have teammates believe in him as a leader.
Crosby said that advice was “spot on,” and he went on to provide an explanation.
“If you’re not genuine, guys pick up on that real quick,” Crosby said. “College is different. You’re growing as a man, you’re trying to figure out who you are and evolve as a leader, and you’re still going to school. You’re just trying to figure out life and how to operate.
But once you get to the league, everyone’s grown men. Dudes have full families. They have different types of motivations, and everyone’s coming from a different walk of life. So being genuine, you’ll never go wrong.”
Crosby’s take make sense, and it would be interesting to know what’s going on behind the scenes here. Mendoza often comes across as a player who’s always trying to say the right thing, regardless of the situation, which might not go over well as the new guy in a pro locker room
Crosby may have his share of flaws and foibles, but no one’s ever accused him of not being genuine. He does have a tendency to take the alpha male part of his job to some strange extremes, and he knows it.
“Trust me, I’m a little weird too,” Crosby concluded. “I do a lot of expletive]. I’m not saying you’re weird, but I’m off the wall sometimes, and I’ll say some [expletive].”
We still don’t know who Mendoza is, and we won’t know until we see how he conducts himself on the field as an NFL player, especially when it comes to handling adversity. It will be fascinating to see what emerges when that starts to happen for real.
