By Paul Honda
paul@hondareport.com
Thursday, Jan. 18, 2007

I'd just entered my car and was on the way to the freeway when the news hit.

It was 3:15 p.m., and Colt Brennan had already announced, 15 minutes earlier over the airwaves of ESPN 1420 AM, that he was staying at the University of Hawaii for one more season.

How monumental is this? There's never been an athlete in the history of UH who has made this kind of a splash, both here and across the nation, with a single decision. Had Colt gone pro, I would have been OK as a fan. I expected him to go. Insurance policies are nice, but most folks don't say no when there's money on the table.

The rumors out there right now are that he could have inked a deal (after the draft, of course) worth $25 million. Might be an exaggerated figure, but what Colt said about opportunity and hard work is true. Once any athlete gets a foot in the door, it's all about fulfilling potential. Nobody really cares or remembers what round a player is selected in once he becomes an All-Pro quarterback. Nobody minds if a player enters the NFL after his junior or senior year.

Beyond the numbers and the risk, though, is the fact that there is no way to buy someone's heart. Hawaii, it's people, the UH teammates that Colt holds dear, his coaches, from June Jones to Dan Morrison — they have all affected Colt in a way that he never really imagined when he first considered Hawaii as an option. They got inside his heart.

Hawaii, he said yesterday, was the one school that was willing to give him the second chance he needed, not very long after Colorado gave up on him and washed their hands clean of his mistake, however true or untrue it really was.

It was here, in the islands, where he found a sense of belonging. It is impossible to put into words what he tried to say at that press conference in Stan Sheriff Center. He didn't need to say much. The emotion of the moment, the honesty and genuine appreciation of all he's been blessed with at UH, came through a million times more clearly than words ever could.

I choked up. Didn't you? He was honest, courageous about his emotions and appreciation, far more than men twice his age. Believe me, there are a lot of us crusty middle-aged guys who don't have a fraction of his spirit, who would shrug off the emotion as a sign of weakness.

It isn't weakness, of course. It is strength. It was a moment of purity and clarity. It was a few minutes in the public eye, once again, for a man who knows, for the first time in a long time, that he is completely loved.

All the money in the world can't buy that, and even though Colt had, perhaps, 25 million reasons to leave, he is a wiser man for staying. There is only one Hawaii, and he knows, there is no place on Earth he'd rather be.

He has knowledge and wisdom now that many of our local 17- and 18-year-old athletes lack. A lot of these young guys are leaving the islands to play in the Pac 10 and other brand-name conferences. I hope they took a good look at Colt's press conference and paid attention not just to the words, but to the heart of the matter.

I hope they come to realize, sooner or later, that leaving the islands to play college football is a mistake. An honest mistake, but a mistake nevertheless.

And life goes on.

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