Cal Sports Report

Fernando Mendoza's Emotional Postgame TV Interview Draws Raves

Cal QB Mendoza displayed 'raw emotion' after the comeback win over Stanford, and viewers loved it

Jake Curtis

Cal quarterback Fernando Mendoza
Cal quarterback Fernando Mendoza / Jake Crandall/ Advertiser / USA TODAY NETWORK
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You want the essence of what college football should be? Watch this video for the umpteenth time.

This is Fernando Mendoza in a one-minute nutshell. 

Some people no doubt will see it as too over-the-top for the moment, but the large majority of viewers loved it, knowing it came after a game-winning, 98-yard drive to overcome 14-point, third-quarter deficit against Cal’s archrival, Stanford, in the Big Game.

The Awful Announcing website reported on it with the headline, “Cal QB Fernando Mendoza gives awesome, emotional interview after beating Stanford.”

Max Browne documented his top moments of the college football weekend on TikTok, culminating with his favorite moment, the Mendoza interview.

The game was on the ACC Network, but ESPN.com put a video of the interview on its site.

Yahoo Sports showed the interview with the caption: "Fernando Mendoza with an ALL-TIME postgame interview after beating Stanford."

It gave rise to a T-shirt, which I would love to have if I weren’t a journalist pledged not to show favoritism.

Mendoza had gathered himself by Tuesday, when he discussed that Saturday TV interview, noting that he had not seen a video of the interview himself since he doesn’t have social media.

“I’ve got numerous reactions from my friends and family that think it’s a great interview,” he said. “Steve Levy, who played here [and organized Saturday’s reunion of the 2004 Cal team] said that he loved it, that it was raw emotion. It truly was raw emotion.

“I don’t know why I was crying but I was. I felt a little overwhelmed in the moment because it was so surreal, really going 98 yards with the boys and scoring. I kind of blacked out and let my words talk.

“I am proud to put an interview like that out there to show I care about this team and the game of college football.”

Jonathan Brady, who caught the 22-yard touchdown pass to complete the 98-yard drive, thinks he might be to blame for Mendoza’s extreme emotion.

“I’m a very emotional guy," Brady said, "so when we scored and the defense finally made a great stop to end the game, I just went up to him, and I was like, ‘I love you; I love you, brother.’ I don’t know why, but I was tearing up, so I kind of think I made him start tearing up for the interview. So that’s my bad.”

Or his good.

And finally here is the twitter message from Morgan Uber, who conducted the interview, or rather, held the microphone while Mendoza spilled his guts.

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Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

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