Hawaii football legend Colt Brennan diagnosed with CTE
By Keith Demolder
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HONOLULU, Hawaii (KITV) — The unfortunate death of Hawaii football legend Colt Brennan shook Hawaii to its core. At just 37, many questions remained after the former Rainbow Warrior passed away from a drug overdose in May of 2021.
Today, many of those lingering questions were answered with simple diagnosis: Brennan suffered from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, otherwise known as CTE.
Colt’s father Terry Brennan confirmed to KITV 4 that Colt’s brain showed signs of the same disease discovered in the brains of countless former football players.
According to a brain analysis performed by Boston’s University’s CTE Center, Brennan had stage I CTE due to a combination of injuries sustained during his time on the football field, substance abuse and the traumatic brain injury Brennan suffered in 2010 back on the big island.
Terry said after that, Colt was never the same person, experiencing severe mood swings and often struggling with simple tasks. Terry characterized Colt’s shift as “the dark side,” whereas Brennan’s mother Betsy described it as “going down the rabbit hole.”
Terry Brennan decided this year to get Colt’s brain examined closer to understand what exactly happened with his son.
“CTE dealt with behavior which didn’t make much sense with Colt because he was always so upbeat, but he would get into these dark times…He had trouble with easy stuff,” Terry Brennan said. “It caught our eye and we just didn’t know…The more information we got from the people back at Boston University, we thought that if nothing else, it might help someone else down the road.”
The whole family, still not a year removed from the death of their son, is still in mourning, but Colt’s CTE diagnosis provides some sought after answers to their lingering questions.
“With Colt’s passing, there’s no real relief, but I know that Colt tried,” Terry said. “Knowing that he was dealing with something he wasn’t in control of… something the treatment centers weren’t equipped to deal with…it created an ease on our part knowing that he battled.”
The Brennan family will return to Hawaii to honor Colt’s memory with a celebration of life ceremony on Waikiki Beach on March 20th at 8:00 a.m., a day they’ve had circled on the calendar for months.
“I know it’s going to be especially special to my wife and our daughters, and I know it’s going to be special for Colt because he thought so much of Hawaii and its people,” Brennan said. “He was adamant he was going to make it his home and he did. It’s going to be a special time to celebrate his life and we’re very much looking forward to it.”
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