Anybody who has watched quarterback Colt Brennan play for the University of Hawai'i football team knows well by now what a rare talent he is.

What yesterday's press conference to announce he is foregoing the NFL draft to stay another season at UH reinforced is just how remarkable a person Brennan has become, too.

In sports, where the headlines too often remind us just how wildly disparate and exclusive the two sides of today's stars can be, Brennan instead stands as a refreshing exception.

One with a tear in his eye and, at times, an emotion-choked voice, as he outlined what compelled him to return to take aim at the considerable challenge of bettering a season that matched the most victories in school history (11) and rewrote several NCAA records.

The decision, foregoing what likely would have been a multi-million dollar position in the NFL draft, was eye-opening enough. "I know plenty of people out there will think I'm crazy," Brennan acknowledged. One of them being his father, Terry, in Calif. who joked — we think — about having to support his son for another year.

Yet, the reasons Colt cited speak more to a strength of heartfelt values than anything lacking in mental capacity.

I mean, how many times have we heard a sports figure say, "it isn't about the money" and, then, grab the moolah? Well, Brennan maintained all along it wasn't about the money and, surprise of surprises, it wasn't. "This is what mattered to me," Brennan said. And you got the feeling it really did.

How often have we heard coaches and stars preach commitment and team and then grab the first limo out of town when there's a more lucrative payday to be had? Well, Brennan didn't. "We know how to embrace each other and play football how it is supposed to be played," Brennan said.

Time and again he spoke to a value-conscious calling. "I like the person I'm becoming in Hawai'i," Brennan said. "I want to give back to the school that gave back to me."

What head coach June Jones and UH gave Brennan after much thought was a second chance at a college football career after he had very nearly forfeited the first as the result of burglary and trespassing convictions stemming from an incident at the University of Colorado. What Brennan has done, trodding an exemplary path in two seasons at UH and promising to come back for a third, now is pay back that debt with interest.

"It (the decision) sort of typifies everything about him," said assistant coach Dan Morrison. "There are so many intangible qualities about him, and two of them are his heart and his feeling for the people around him."

It was those people, who have shared sideline and huddle with him, who celebrated most in the 30-second burst of applause and cheers that rocked the Edwin S. N. Wong Hospitality Suite immediately after the announcement. It was they, spying his press conference attire of slippers and shorts, who first guessed the message he came to deliver.

"I had a feeling he was going to come back, call it a gut feeling," said Jason Rivers, one of Brennan's favorite receivers. "We tell the guys from the Mainland that this is a team — a team with a capital 'T' — and Colt feels that."

Indeed, this seemed less about improving a projected place in the NFL draft, one that could have been a first-round position, according to some handicappers, to commanding a bigger stack of bucks.

Upon returning to campus following the Walter Camp Awards at Yale last week, Brennan said he came to feel what was important to him. "I came back to school here and (as) I was walking around and going to classes, I realized, you know, it is a great opportunity I have just being with these guys. To experience it for one more year means a lot to me."

That it apparently is worth millions says a lot about the man behind the decision and how much he has grown into the position of the Warriors' leader.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.