News & Politics

Colt Brennan, Former Washington Football Team Draft Pick, Dies at 37

The quarterback was the team's sixth round pick in 2008.

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Quarterback Colt Brennan, a onetime sixth round draft pick of the Washington Football Team, died Monday at a hospital in California, according to the Honolulu Star Advertiser. He was 37. 

Brennan, who was a finalist for the Heisman Trophy in 2007, missed his rookie season with the Washington Football Team due to injuries. He was subsequently let go by the organization, according to ESPN, and he never managed to play in the NFL.

After sustaining a brain injury during a car accident in 2010, he developed substance abuse issues, according to the Star Advertiser. He also began to face legal problems; he has been arrested on more than one occasion for driving under the influence, according to ESPN.

Brennan had been at a rehabilitation facility until a few days ago, when he was discovered unconscious and taken to a hospital, the Star Advertiser reported. 

“He was doing so well,” his father,  Terry Brennan, told the newspaper. “The spark was back in his eyes, and he was healthy and doing great, and it happened.”

At the time of his death, Brennan’s family was at his bedside, according to ESPN. “He went peacefully,” Terry Brennan told the Star Advertiser. “He listened to Bob Marley. His sisters had a lei around him when he was unconscious. They had the music of Bob Marley playing near his ear.”

Senior Writer

Luke Mullins is a senior writer at Washingtonian magazine focusing on the people and institutions that control the city’s levers of power. He has written about the Koch Brothers’ attempt to take over The Cato Institute, David Gregory’s ouster as moderator of NBC’s Meet the Press, the collapse of Washington’s Metro system, and the conflict that split apart the founders of Politico.