Ohio State fans confused after QB Will Howard wasn't allowed on stage after Rose Bowl victory

Fans are asking questions after Ohio State Buckeyes quarterback Will Howard was blocked from joining his teammates for an on-stage celebration after the Rose Bowl.

Videos made the rounds online of fans yelling "let him up" and "he's the quarterback!" as Howard stood at the bottom of a staircase while just one security guard in a headset prevented him from reaching his teammates.

Ohio State players like Tyleik Williams and TreVeyon Henderson stood by flabbergasted as to what was happening.

"They're blocking me!" Howard told the crowd behind him.

However, several sources (such as Sports Illustrated) have seemingly confirmed that the security guard in the video informed Howard that there was a weight limit for the stage, and the security was instructed to not let more personnel up the steps.

Howard can later be heard telling onlookers, "There's a weight limit, apparently."

Despite Ohio State dominating Oregon 41-21, fans were not pleased when the video was posted online.

"If someone told me this happened and I hadn't seen it, I would have thought they were lying. It's that ridiculous," a fan stated.

A man named Roger said it would have been "a classy move" if one of Howard's teammates got off the stage in order to let him up.

Multiple fans went as far as to say Howard was being disrespected because he is openly Christian.

"He's a Christian so they hate him," one fan claimed.

Some, including Sports Illustrated writer Kyle Koster, praised the security team's adherence to the weight limit.

"Heck yes," Koster wrote. "It's so refreshing to see guardrails in place for rules to stay hard and fast—even for big-time quarterbacks that have NFL futures."

"Howard is a leader so he'll take this as a learning lesson," he added.

A fan on X also wrote, "Weight limits don’t care about the name."

As a fan of Michigan, Barstool Sports owner Dave Portnoy took a different approach and jokingly made the story all about him.

"For anybody who thinks the Michigan game doesn't consume Ohio. They wouldn't even let Will Howard on stage cause of the way he choked like a dead dog against Mich. Unreal," he wrote, followed by several laughing faces.

Ohio State will play Texas in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic on January 10, the semi-final of the College Football Playoff.

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