Miami Hurricanes quarterback Cam Ward didn’t seem particularly interested in celebrating the edible mascot at the end of the Pop-Tarts Bowl as he sat on the bench at halftime.

Ward, widely believed to be one of the top two quarterbacks in the 2025 NFL Draft, chose not to return for Miami’s bowl game against Iowa State after halftime.

“I think all meetings with players and decisions like this we take privately and keep them private. So I prefer not to answer questions about that,” Miami head coach Mario Cristobal said when asked about Ward’s decision. “I know he did his best there.”

Ward was 12 of 19 passing for 190 yards and three touchdowns at the half. It was a good performance in a game where there were a lot of goals, but the performance was completely undermined by his decision.

And it’s strange. But let’s not act like this is the first time it’s happened.

Just last year, wide receiver Malik Nabers played in LSU’s bowl game against Wisconsin only to break the program’s all-time receiving record, 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 strange, because why even attend the game at that point? If injuries really are the biggest concern, why risk something catastrophic happening in the first two quarters?

We’ve seen promising NFL careers hit the brakes before they even start because of serious 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 aside from hoisting a trophy with a built-in toaster.

Sure, in an era where name, image and likeness dominate the world of college football, star players like Ward and Nabers are fairly compensated for their contributions on the field. But they know there’s a much bigger payday in store in the NFL.

It remains to be determined whether this decision will raise any red flags for Ward’s draft stock. NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah said the situation was silly, while draft analyst Todd McShay criticized the decision.

The New York Giants currently hold the No. 1 overall pick. While there’s no guarantee GM Joe Schoen will make the pick, he traveled to Orlando to watch Ward play. When Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders bragged about Giants-style cleats before his Alamo Bowl game against BYU, the Giants preferred to watch Ward in person, but one has to wonder if they were surprised when he didn’t play in the second game Half was used.

It certainly seems like the conversation between Ward and Cristobal came to the conclusion that they don’t care about the Pop-Tarts Bowl and would rather Ward solidify himself as a top-10 NFL draft pick.

Did Ward “quit his team”? Possibly.

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