"I think what he’s done is put himself in the game. He’s got it to a point where we feel like he can go in and hand it off and he’s got a handful of throws he can make and understand."

— Oakland Raiders coach Tom Cable on Colt Brennan

"He’s meaner than a rattler and twice as fast! … Watch him. I seen him do some things."

— From "The Outlaw Josie Wales"

First things first. Stop with the Kenny Stabler comparisons. Let’s let the guy chuck a few footballs wearing the silver and black in a pro game — maybe even a real one, please, not preseason — before measuring him up against one of the most iconic of all Oakland Raiders.

Yeah, maybe his loosy goosy persona resembles that of Snake in his heyday, and maybe that’s why Al Davis insisted his minions bring him the right arm of Colt Brennan.

But c’mon. Brennan’s next pass in a regular-season NFL game will be his first. Stabler’s a bona fide part of NFL folklore, Super Bowl ring and all. Colt’s just a legend in Hawaii and Washington, D.C., and at Mater Dei High School.

Brennanites — at least the less delusional — should be happy with David Humm or Mark Malone status, for now.

Here’s the gameplan. Complete most of your passes tonight and don’t throw any to the guys with stars on their helmets.

Just make it to the next game, baby.

We know what he did as a quarterback at the University of Hawaii. With the Redskins it was more about what he didn’t do; Brennan never got into a regular-season game, so he never had the opportunity to lose one. He might be the only Hawaii guy other than the Senator Dans to leave D.C. undefeated.

Is the second-string quarterback really the most popular guy on a football team? Maybe not. Sometimes it’s the third-stringer.

There is no such thing as conventional wisdom when it comes to Davis and the Raiders. Remember, this is the owner who likes to do things simply because no one else will, embrace players others won’t.

His team has always been The Island of Misfit Toys. Sometimes it means Rich Gannon taking you to the Super Bowl, sometimes it means Darrius Heyward-Bey continuing to do what he does best, drop passes.

So Oakland is a great fit for Brennan. This might not be his last stand, but as he closes in on his 27th birthday with several surgical scars and an invisible body of work as a pro (those exhibitions two years ago against dudes now coaching at their high schools don’t count), he is fortunate to have landed anyplace he can get on the field.

And why are people wasting time discussing if it’s an audition for the Raiders or the rest of the league?

Clearly, it’s both.

Although the Raiders motto of "Commitment to Excellence" has eroded into a punchline, it still probably doesn’t mean commitment to Kyle Boller or Charlie Frye.

Yes, they and Bruce Gradkowski are viable as backups to Jason Campbell. But the unknown of Brennan’s ceiling, that could be in his favor. Brennan’s upper limit is much less predictable than for these journeymen who have actually played. Unless he’s terrible tonight, it makes sense to keep Brennan around for an extended look.

It’s not like the Raiders have an aversion to X factors.

Here, we remember Brennan as dominating on the field, accommodating off of it for three years. Passing up millions of dollars to stay in school and lead the Warriors to the Sugar Bowl. Third in the Heisman voting.

The rest of the nation’s football fans remember him spending New Year’s Day, 2008, looking at the ceiling of the Superdome.

Either way, it can be hard to separate legend from fact, emotion from reality.

His fans don’t want to accept that the path from college stardom to NFL job is littered with hundreds of players superb at the one level but simply not good enough for the next — and that Brennan might be one of those guys.

But it appears Davis has joined the Cult of Colt. If he’s still a member after tonight, this could be much more than a temp job. Don’t forget who runs the Raiders.

Reach Star-Advertiser sports columnist Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com, his "Quick Reads" blog at staradvertiser.com and twitter.com/davereardon