Heisman winner Fernando Mendoza just gave $500K to Miami UHealth. Here’s why

Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Fernando Mendoza wants to help make a difference for people who, like his mom, are living with multiple sclerosis, or MS, a chronic condition that attacks and damages the body’s nervous system.

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On Thursday, the Christopher Columbus High School alum came back to Miami to personally deliver the $500,000 check he promised to the University of Miami Health System and University of Miami Miller School of Medicine to help fund research and support programs for MS patients, including new clinical trials that will test whether stem cells can be used to slow and reverse the condition’s debilitating symptoms.

The donation is part of a new partnership between the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and Mendoza’s family, which launched the Mendoza Family Fund to help raise money for research, treatment and support for MS.

“Today isn’t about football. It’s about my mom,” an emotional Mendoza said during Thursday’s news conference.

“Mommy, thank you for showing me what real strength looks like,” he said. “Everything I’ve accomplished starts with you.”

The gift to UHealth and UM’s medical school, which was announced earlier this year, is an “investment in discovery, an investment in innovation, and most importantly an investment in hope,” said Dr. Henri R. Ford, dean and chief academic officer of UM’s Miller School of Medicine.

The gift will help support “regenerative therapies, expanded access and will push the boundaries of discovery to identify solutions that have the potential to change the lives for generations of patients and families.”

MS is an autoimmune disorder where the immune system “mistakenly attacks healthy cells,” according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. MS symptoms vary by person and can depend on where in the nervous system — and how severe — the damage is, though common symptoms include numbness, vision changes and difficulty walking, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Researchers don’t know yet what exactly causes MS, a condition that is estimated to affect 1 million people in the country. There is no cure yet, though treatments do exist to help manage symptoms.

Mendoza donation to help fund stem cell MS research

The Mendoza family hopes their donation will help bring researchers like Dr. Flavia Nelson closer to a cure. Nelson is a professor of neurology at the University of Miami and the director of the Multiple Sclerosis Center of Excellence. She’s leading a clinical trial testing a stem cell treatment to see if it can help repair advanced MS-related damage in patients and improve their ability to walk and function.

The upcoming trial will test a new stem cell therapy, NG01 from the company NeuroGenesis, to see if it can help slow the disease progression and improve the ability of movement in patients 18 to 65 with advanced MS. Besides Miami, the trial — which Nelson describes as the first of its kind in the nation — will also be conducted at several other academic health centers in the country, as well as in Israel.

Nelson, in a phone interview with the Miami Herald ahead of the news conference, described the trial as “ambitious” and said that the goal of the stem cell therapy is to not just slow the disease progression but also to improve the patient’s condition.

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And the treatment has shown promise so far in earlier trial stages. It was granted a “Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy” designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration earlier this year to help expedite the development and review of the regenerative medicine therapy for the treatment of secondary progressive multiple scerlosis. The company said the designation was granted based on its phase 2 trial data, which demonstrated that the therapy “may slow disease progression, reduce disability, and improve function (walking and hand dexterity) in Progressive MS patients” and showed signs of reducing “key biomarkers of neurodegeneration.”

Here’s how it works: Doctors take “bone marrow derived stem cells” from the patient’s hip and send them to a lab to be “engineered” and filled with high levels of protein, according to Nelson. The enhanced stem cells are then injected into the patient to help repair the areas of the brain and spinal cord that were damaged by the disease.

Nelson believes trials like this one are just the beginning of the future of regenerative medicine — and of a future where doctors will be able to repair brain damage.

“Gifts like the one from the Mendoza family, they give us the opportunity to pursue bold ideas, expand access to promising therapies and move important research forward more quickly,” Nelson said at the news conference.

“For many of our patients, access to cutting-edge treatments is about more than innovation. It is about preserving independence, maintaining quality of life and creating new possibilities for the future,” she added. “So this support brings us closer to therapies that have the potential to stop progression, restore function, and ultimately change the trajectory of the disease.”

‘There is hope,’ Mendoza says

The donation is just the latest effort from Mendoza, his brother Alberto and their family to help MS patients. They previously helped raise over $360,000 through DIY fundraising efforts for the National MS Society and to raise awareness about the disease, according to the National MS Society. The Mendoza Family Fund, which launched on April 23 — the same day that Mendoza went No. 1 in the NFL Draft to the Raiders — has also raised over $60,000, not counting the Mendoza family’s personal donation to UM.

In total, the family has helped raise over $944,000 to help end MS, according to the National MS Society.

“Families like mine may never understand every clinical trial, research project or scientific breakthrough, but we understand what your work means,” a teary-eyed Fernando said shortly after hugging Nelson. “It means families like mine understand that they have the best working beside them, it means that parents have more reasons to believe they’re going to have treatments and cures in their lifetime, and it means that sons and daughters like myself and my brothers believe in a better future than past.”

Mendoza’s decision to select UM to be the fund’s first official recipient is a full-circle moment for the South Florida native. His mom, Elsa, once played on the Miami Hurricanes women’s tennis team, according to USA Today.

Mendoza has his own history with the U.

Mendoza, who was denied a walk-on spot to play for the Miami Hurricanes, earlier this year led the Indiana Hoosiers to victory against the Hurricanes, defeating the team 27-21 during the CFP National Championship at Hard Rock Stadium, securing Indiana’s first national title.

“To all those families living with MS, you are not alone. There is hope. There are people like Dr. Nelson and her team dedicating their life to the fight,” the second-generation Cuban American said in Spanish. “There are always reasons to believe in a better tomorrow. Thank you and may God bless you.”

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This story was originally published July 9, 2026 at 8:04 PM.