Miami Hurricanes quarterback Cam Ward did not seem to care much for the edible mascot celebration at the conclusion of the Pop-Tarts Bowl, as he benched himself at halftime.

Ward, who is widely expected to be one of the top two quarterbacks selected in the 2025 NFL Draft, decided to not return to Miami’s bowl game against Iowa State after halftime. 

“I think all meetings with players and decisions like that, we make them in private and we keep them private. So I’ll prefer not to answer questions as it relates to that,” Miami head coach Mario Cristobal said when asked about Ward’s decision. “I know he played his best while he was in there.” 

Ward was 12-of-19 passing for 190 yards and three touchdowns at half. It was a good showing in a game that had a lot of scoring, but the performance has been completely undermined by his decision.

And it is weird. But let’s not pretend like this is the first time it’s ever happened. 

Just last year, wide receiver Malik Nabers played in LSU’s bowl game against Wisconsin just to break the program’s all-time receiving record and then sat out the entire second half, likely to preserve his health for the NFL Draft.

Ward’s decision to wave the white flag at halftime just looks a little bit strange because at that point, why play in the game at all? If injuries are truly the No. 1 concern, why risk something catastrophic happening within the first two quarters? 

We’ve seen promising NFL careers slam on the brakes before they even get started because of severe injuries in bowl games. Ole Miss quarterback Matt Corral and Michigan tight end Jake Butt are a few examples that immediately come to mind, but there are several more.

These players owe it to themselves to be as healthy as possible. These bowl games are meaningless, outside of hoisting a trophy with a built-in toaster.

Sure, in the era of name, image and likeness dominating the world of college football, star players like Ward and Nabers are compensated fairly for their contributions on the field. But they know a much bigger payday is coming in the NFL.

It’s yet to be determined whether that decision will raise any red flags for Ward’s draft stock. NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah stated that the situation is silly, while draft analyst Todd McShay criticized the decision.

The New York Giants currently have the No. 1 overall selection. While there’s no guarantee that GM Joe Schoen will be the man making the pick, he traveled to Orlando to watch Ward play in this game. As Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders showed off Giants-themed cleats before their Alamo Bowl matchup against BYU, the Giants preferred to watch Ward in person, but you have to wonder if they were caught off guard when he didn’t come out to play the second half.

It surely seems like whatever conversation was had between Ward and Cristobal came to the conclusion that they did not care about the Pop-Tarts Bowl and would rather see Ward cement himself as a top 10 NFL Draft pick.

Did Ward “quit on his team?” Possibly.

But it’s hard to criticize that decision when literally every NFL mock draft available has him slated to make tens of millions of dollars in just a few months. It’s a decision that any sane person would have made.