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- Former NFL quarterback and college football record holder Colt Brennan has died.
- Brennan was just 37 but had previously suffered a brain injury from a car crash.
- Details about his death are unknown at this time.
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Former NFL quarterback and college football record holder Colt Brennan was reported dead on Tuesday, according to Hawaii News Now.
He was 37 years old, and details about his passing were not immediately available.
Brennan was a two-time Heisman Trophy finalist and broke the NCAA's record for career touchdown passes with 122. He broke or tied several other major NCAA records during his college career at the University of Hawaii from 2005-07.
He was drafted by the Washington Football Team in the sixth round of the 2008 NFL Draft and spent two seasons in the NFL as a backup quarterback.
Brennan tried to resume his career in various other football leagues, including the United Football League, Canadian Football League, and Arena Football League but was forced to retire from the game in 2014 after being diagnosed with a brain injury sustained in a 2010 car accident.
"All I know is I woke up, six, seven days later, ... and I was - and I still am - a different person," Brennan said during an appearance on AMC's 4th and Loud. "I suffered minor TBI - traumatic brain injury. I just have a small scar, you know, on my brain, but it's in an area that makes you impulsive and emotional. I've had to learn how to control that."
Brennan was arrested multiple times in Hawaii on charges of driving under the influence, including one in 2019. In 2015 he filed a false police report that his car was stolen, which his attorney blamed on memory problems stemming from the 2010 crash, according to Leila Fujimori of The Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
He began his college football career as a walk-on at the University of Colorado in 2003 but was dismissed from the team after an incident in which he was charged with several crimes, including accusations of sexual assault after entering the dorm room of a female student uninvited, according to ESPN. He spent a week in jail, but the guilty verdict was vacated due to lack of evidence, according to The Los Angeles Times.
Brennan revived his college football career at Saddleback College in his home state of California for one season in 2004, leading the junior college program to a conference championship.
His 2004 season earned him another walk-on opportunity at Hawaii. He won the starting quarterback job as a redshirt sophomore, breaking or tying 11 of the school's single-season records in the process.
Brennan went on to throw 53 touchdown passes in 2006, falling one short of the NCAA's single-season record. He led his team to appearances in the Hawaii Bowl in 2006 and the Sugar Bowl in 2007. He was selected as a Heisman finalist both years.