Two NFLers Missing off Florida Coast
March 1, 2009 by dwil
Two NFL players, Corey Smith (Detroit Lions) and Marquis Cooper (Buccaneers, Seahawks, Jaguars, Steelers and Raiders) are missing off the coast of Florida. The pair went out for a fishing trip Saturday with two other men and have not been heard from since:
Smith and Cooper were on a 21-foot vessel that left Clearwater Pass for a fishing trip Saturday morning and did not return as expected, the Coast Guard said Sunday. Crews used a helicopter and a 47-foot boat to search a 750-square mile area west of Clearwater Pass, but poor weather made the search difficult. Officials did not receive a distress signal from the missing craft.
Cooper owns the boat and he and Smith have been on fishing trips before, said Ron Del Duca, Smith’s agent. The pair had been teammates on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2004. Two others were aboard: Will Bleakley and Nick Schuyler, both former University of South Florida players.
Coast Guard Capt. Timothy M. Close said the weather early Saturday had been fair, but worsened toward the evening as a front still battering the area moved in. The National Weather Service said seas were about 2 to 4 feet Saturday morning and increased to 3 to 5 feet in the afternoon. Late Saturday night, a small craft advisory was issued, when winds were around 20 knots and seas were up to 7 feet or more. There were no thunderstorms in the area.
Relatives provided the Coast Guard with GPS coordinates from previous fishing trips embarked upon by the men. Let’s hope all four men are safe.
wow!
Let’s hope.
Someone at ESPN’s going to be working overtime deleting racist and insensitve posts in the comments section, the slime of humanity.
Why?
Speculations of drug smuggling, steroids smuggling, etc.
Pathetic.
search going through the night:
St. Petersburg, FL — The commander for the U.S. Coast Guard, St. Petersburg Sector, says he will NOT call off the search for the night for four missing boaters.
Instead, the Coast Guard has stepped up its nighttime search with more planes and bigger patrol boats.
They have been using 87-foot patrol boats but even boats of that size are having a hard time.
Two 110-foot patrol boats will replace the smaller patrol boats and are headed out to sea tonight.
The Air Force is also helping out with the search now.
Meanwhile, the weather and water conditions have not become any better for the water or air search.
Seas are still fourteen feet high and wind gusts up to thirty miles-per-hour.
The Coast Guard says those conditions kick up white caps on the water that make it even harder to see from any distance away.
Around 11:00 Sunday night, the Coast Guard switched shifts and refueled boats to get back on the water.
They say there is no indication that the men are NOT in the boat so the search continues as a search and rescue.
Stay tuned with 10 Connects This Morning to find out the very latest on the search for these four men lost at sea.
My prayers for their safe return.
I will pray for those young men. I hope they are O.K.
Also brotha Dwil, I hope everything is well with your family. I saw this morning that those wild fires are bad in Austin.
ONE MAN FOUND:
CLEARWATER, Fla. — The Coast Guard says a man who went missing during a fishing trip has been found clinging to an overturned boat that belongs to Oakland Raiders linebacker Marquis Cooper.
The Coast Guard says former University of South Florida player Nick Schuyler was rescued Monday off the Florida coast. Authorities say Cooper, Detroit Lions free agent Corey Smith and former South Florida player, William Bleakley, remain missing.
Coast Guard Capt. Timothy M. Close says Schuyler told rescuers that the 21-foot boat was anchored when it flipped Saturday evening in rough seas. Schuyler told rescuers the others got separated from the boat and that he had been clinging to it since.
Television footage shows Schuyler conscious but weak as he was being taken off a Coast Guard helicopter at Tampa General Hospital and placed on a stretcher.
The St. Petersburg Times reported that Schuyler’s family has been alerted by the Coast Guard and that Schuyler was found alive and is talking. Schuyler is en route to a Tampa-area hospital.
Asked for a reaction from the newspaper, Stuart Schuyler, who is Nick’s father, said: “Like God heard me.”