Former Hawaii QB Colt Brennan, dead from overdose, had CTE, family reveals
Colt Brennan, the record-setting Hawaii quarterback whose death last May shocked the college football world, was found to have stage 1 CTE in a post-mortem examination, his family revealed via Sports Illustrated.
Brennan's body was reportedly examined by the CTE Center at Boston University, which was unable to fully examine his brain due to other injuries. There was enough evidence to confirm CTE, though, which sheds further light on the post-retirement life of the record-setting passer.
Brennan was 37 years old when he died.
Colt Brennan had extensive brain damage
Like many of his peers, Brennan started playing football at the youth level. His career peaked when he transferred to Hawaii, where he passed for 14,193 career yards and a then-record 131 touchdowns and finished third in Heisman voting after a 12-0 regular season with the Rainbow Warriors.
Brennan never found similar success at the pro level, never playing a regular season game in the NFL and washing out of other leagues.
Tragedy struck Brennan in 2010 when a car crash left him with a traumatic brain injury that effectively ended his football career. Issues with drug and alcohol addiction followed. Researchers, partly led by Dr. Ann McKee, reportedly found evidence of all three problems — CTE, traumatic brain injury, addiction — in their examination of Brennan.
From Sports Illustrated:
The first she noted was a massive gap in the membrane that connects the two sides of the brain to each other. Colt suffered a significant cavum septum pellucidum that ran the length of the membrane, meaning there was a gap — or a cave — all along it that should not have been there. He also suffered a loss of tissue in his right frontal lobe that essentially left a hole there due to a substantial loss of tissue caused by the 2010 car accident.
While all of these factors made it more difficult for McKee to assess the extent of CTE in the brain, McKee was still able to confirm Colt’s brain showed CTE in the frontal cortex, the brain stem and other subcortical regions. “It was enough to call CTE Stage I,” she says. “But it might’ve been greater had we been able to really assess other regions.”
With all of those problems, two rehab officials told SI that it was remarkable Brennan managed to get sober at the start of 2021, but a relapse in May eventually led to his death by accidental overdose. Fentanyl, methamphetamine, amphetamine and ethanol were all reportedly found in his system.
Per Sports Illustrated, McKee found that the overdose left Brennan unconscious and unable to breathe long enough that his entire brain "looked as though it had suffered a gigantic stroke."
Given the effects CTE has on decision-making and impulse control, it seems quite plausible the condition played a role in Brennan's addiction.
