2 NFL players missing out of clearwater???

[mr fun]

on the news here they reported they went out on a fishing trip early this morning in a 21' fishing boat out of clearwater. it's been lake affect winds here all day in the 30+ mph range :confused: in a 21' boat:confused: as of 6 pm search was called off due to rough conditions, god help them :iagree:

[Wild Wil]

saw a report that 4 ppl total on boat......not good

[specboatops]

who is it supposedly

[mikesufka]

The Coast Guard was searching off Florida's Gulf Coast on Sunday for a fishing boat carrying NFL players Corey Smith and Marquis Cooper and two other men missing nearly a day in choppy seas.

Two NFL players lost at sea 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.

Close said the men were traveling in a boat manufactured by Everglades. At least one of the men was an experienced boater, and relatives provided the Coast Guard with GPS coordinates from previous fishing expeditions.

Close said there was no communication with the men even before the weather started to pick up. They were expected home by early evening. No sign of them or the boat had been spotted by late Sunday afternoon.

Poor weather conditions could be dangerous for a boat the size of Cooper's.

"A 21-foot boat is a relatively small vessel to be 50 miles off shore in bad weather conditions, certainly the current weather conditions," Close said.

The Coast Guard search was mainly taking place by air, and was hampered by the poor weather, Close said. He said there were 14-foot seas offshore and wind gusts of up to 30 mph. Water depth in the area where they are searching ranges from 20 to 50 feet.

Close said there was no sign yet that the men sent a distress signal.

"That's not to say they didn't send one out," he said. "We didn't receive anything."

Smith, 29, had 30 tackles, including three sacks, and an interception in 12 games last season for the winless Lions. Smith, who is 6-foot-2, 250 pounds, also played for the San Francisco 49ers and played college ball at North Carolina State. He lives in Richmond, Va.

Del Duca called Smith one of the "good guys" of the league and was planning to start visiting teams as a free agent this week. He said he has spoken with Smith's family and is also in touch with Coast Guard officials.

"They've assured me that they're deploying all available resources to look for these guys and get them back," he said.

Cooper, 26, has played five seasons with the Buccaneers, Seahawks, Jaguars, Steelers and Raiders. He appeared in 26 games with the Buccaneers in 2004 and 2005, recording 30 tackles. He has played sparingly since as he has bounced between teams, appearing in 13 games and recording 10 tackles. Cooper, who is 6-foot-3, 230 pounds, played college ball at Washington. His hometown is Mesa, Ariz., and his father Bruce is a prominent sportscaster for KPNX-TV in Phoenix.

Cooper told The Seattle Times in 2002 that one reason he chose Washington was the abundant fishing.

"I like fighting the fish," Cooper told the newspaper. "And just relaxing out there and being alone and being outside."

Lions spokesman Bill Keenist and Raiders senior executive John Hererra said the teams are monitoring reports.

[Tom Foley]

Tragic , but preventable . Saturdays weather here was calling for winds approaching 20 mph out of the south - southwest which produces super snotty condtions on the west coast here . The Everglades while a nice well built rig is still a 21 ft boat , and the four ft seas with windblown chop would have made for a really tough ride . They left early and I'm sure it was calmer then , but it was no offshore day for a 21 footer . I hope they find them alive .

[Ted Stryker]

I did a day of SailFishing of the coast of Miami when I was 16 years old... We were on 24' twin 150hp boat and 12'-15' seas as reported by , and that was a real eye opener for Me... We were with one of the most experianced Guides in the area, and I WOULD NOT have wanted to be out there with anyone resembling a novice 50 miles offshore... I was let down when I heard that they were only called 12'-15' seas, the Ocean just looked like an endless landscape of hollows and hills that were swelling and sinking over and over... I wish these Guy's the best, but regardless of the turnout I hope this is an education for anyone willing to pay attention to the dangers of the open Sea...

[PARKER RABE]

The Ramp They Used Is Right Down The Street, Ive Been Down There A Few Times Today On The Go Ped , There Truck Is Still There , With The Trailer Hooked Up To It .LOTS OF NEWS VAN AND COPS ARE AROUND...sad Story , I Be Out Transporting A 44 Footer By Water From Clearwater To Sarasota , Be Scary To Roll Up On Them !!!, Ill Be Right In There Path

[Jay Smith]

50 miles out in a 21' boat in rough seas ????? All you can do is hope for the best ......

Jay

[PARKER RABE]

The Winds Blowing Here About 25 Mph All Day , Its Comming Right On Shore , So I Figured That It Would Blow Them On To The Beach Sometime Soon ? Boat Was A 21 Footer , I Know It Was 6 Foot Swells Out There All Day Today

[Ted Stryker]

I would think if it weren't more than 8' seas then they could've faired reasonably well even with a loss of power, but then again I would think that the Coast Guard could've found them by now...

[PARKER RABE]

I Here Ya , I Can See Them Running Off The Coast Right Now , With Search Lights On

[PARKER RABE]

Gonna Make A Stop By The Ramp In The Morning, on the way to work . , Tell The Coast Guard That Im Geeting Ready To Make A 40 Mile Trip Right Out Of Clearwater Pass , And I Will Be Monitoring Channel 16...

[PARKER RABE]

also a 21 everglades is a very low gunnel boat

[mr fun]

is from the back side, so the face is as much as twice as high, 14'= 28' face :eek: even 8' is big enough to loose sight of the horizon and get you disoriented. engine trouble and your done. everglades of that size I've seen are single engined boats. those 40'er's I saw in the middle of the atlantic and the pacific get you real close to the lord :iagree:, espically in the atlantic, in a hurricane, we usually went 250 mi a day, in 3 days we went 17 mi. :cool:

[Ted Stryker]

Mr.Fun, You cleared up a lot of ? for Me... Like I said earlier, the 12'-15' seas that I saw look like high and deep monsters from a 24' boat... At least they did to an inland Boy...

[Pro300x24LD]

Hope they find them.

[Tom Foley]

Apparently they did not send an EPIRB signal which would have a helicopter overhead in 30 minutes around here . 50 miles is an eternity in rough water , one blown hose or malfunctioning bilge pump and you are on the bottom . Water temps in the high 50's would give you an hour or so to think about things . Sad deal .

[mrcrsr]

i would think that boat has flotation, so where is the boat??

[PARKER RABE]

thats what ive been wondering

[PARKER RABE]

Boat Was Found , Up Side Down 40 Miles Off The Coast With One Survivor, Hanging On To The Side!

[specboatops]

Boat Was Found , Up Side Down 40 Miles Off The Coast With One Survivor, Hanging On To The Side!

WOW hopefully they can find the other, very sad. Thank for keeping us posted.

[PARKER RABE]

Whata Terrible Story

[Pro300x24LD]

12:27: Nick Schuyler is the boater who has been found, according to the cousin of Marquis Cooper, Ray Sanchez, who is at the Clearwater boat ramp where the men were last seen and has been getting updates from family. He was found 38 miles west of Tampa Bay alive and clinging to a boat, Sanchez said.

The Coast Guard cutter Tornado found the boat and dispatched a smaller boat to rescue him.

12:10 p.m.: A man has been found clinging to a boat about 30 miles west of the Tampa Bay area, Bay News 9 has reported.

CLEARWATER — The Coast Guard has searched over 16,000 square miles of the Gulf of Mexico and found no sign of four missing boaters or their vessel, a Coast Guard spokeswoman said this morning.

The survival of the boaters — former Tampa Bay Buccaneers Marquis Cooper and Corey Smith and former University of South Florida football players Will Bleakley and Nick Schuyler — is the main question more than 48 hours since they set out on a fishing trip aboard a 21-foot boat. The Coast Guard has several crews still searching the area west of Clearwater Pass.

Clearwater's Seminole Boat Ramp, where the four men departed from early Saturday, was quiet this morning after a day of fret and panic Sunday. The families of the missing boaters were gone after pacing and praying at the site for much of Sunday.

Chris Mayes, 19, whose family owns Jaxson's Bait House near the boat ramp, said it was clear by sundown Sunday that something was wrong.

On Saturday morning people were "itching to get out" on the first day of perfect weekend weather of the new year, Mayes said.

By 6 a.m., all of the boat ramps were booked and people were complaining about the crowded parking lot, Mayes said. But by 2 p.m., boaters were scrambling to get back, spooked by the winds and choppy waters.

At an offshore location about 50 miles west of the Tampa Bay area on Saturday afternoon, waves were in the 4- to 6-foot range and "the winds were around 10 to 15 knots and some gusts up to 20 knots, which still makes it uncomfortable for most boaters," National Weather Service meteorologist Todd Barron said.

But the weather turned awful late Saturday and early Sunday as a front passed through.

"Waves increased from 4 to 6 feet to about 10 to 15," Barron said. By about 7 a.m. Sunday the offshore winds "increased to 30 to 40 knots."

With grouper and snapper season closed, officials think the four friends may have gone amberjack fishing.

During the winter months, these open-ocean predators are typically 20 to 50 miles offshore.

"Marquis likes to fish for A.J.s," said Bill Hamilton, who operates Reel Deal charters out of the Clearwater Marina. "I had taken him fishing a few times and he had e-mailed me a while back looking for some numbers."

Hamilton said he gave cooper GPS coordinates for several well-known fishing spots, including the location of the natural gas pipeline and some deep-water springs, from 15 to 50 miles offshore.

Cooper and his friends were aboard an Everglades 211 CC, a small, deep-vee offshore boat that he purchased in 2005 from Sun Ray Marine in Largo.

"It is a good offshore boat, virtually unsinklable," said the dealership's owner, Robert Tronio. "In five to seven foot seas, the size could be an issue."

Tornio said that Cooper like to run far offshore in search of fish. "He told us that he liked to bring along extra fuel to extend his range," Tronio said.

By sundown Saturday, the ramp parking lot was empty except for a lone GMC truck, belonging to Cooper. That's the truck the missing four boaters arrived in. A one-day parking pass was still on the windshield.

Coast Guard spokeswoman Sondra-Kay Kneen said the search will carry on throughout the day, and she could not say if and when the search would end. Vessels and planes searching the gulf have covered 16,000 square miles, she said. The search area stretches from Cedar Key in Levy County to Boca Grande in Lee County.

Word of the men's disappearance spread quickly throughout the Tampa Bay area, and especially among those who regularly frequent the same waters.

Mike Miller owns a diving charter business and was also out in the gulf the on Saturday. He wondered how the men could have stayed in the water, knowing Saturday's weather forecast of strong winds from the arriving cold front.

"Anything over 10 knots, that's really dicey," Miller said. "The forecast Friday night I saw said 10 to 20 knots, 4- to 6-foot seas. So if just one of those four guys would have read the report, they would have said, 'We're not going 50 miles offshore in a 20-foot boat.' "

Meanwhile, friends and family of the four men are awaiting updates.

Bleakley, 25, grew up in Citrus County and played football at Crystal River High School. The school's faculty members are being kept abreast of the situation via e-mail and hoping for good news.

"Everyone is sitting back and waiting for good news," athletic director Tony Stukes said. "Obviously, there is concern for Will's safety, and concern for his family. It's a tight-knit community."

Bleakley, a 2002 graduate, was a standout baseball and football player. As a senior, he helped lead the school to the state baseball final four, which was played at Tampa's Legends Field.

Bleakley's parents are well known in the community and are part of the chain crew at Crystal River home football games, Stukes said.

Bleakley and 24-year-old Schuyler live in Tampa. Cooper, who turns 27 next week, is a linebacker with the Oakland Raiders, and 29-year-old Smith is a free agent defensive end who most recently played for the Detroit Lions. Both Cooper and Smith own homes in the Tampa Bay area.

Cooper owns the boat the men left on Saturday, and friends and family described him as an experienced boater who had life jackets and flares onboard.

The Lions and Raiders teams each released statements expressing concern for all of the boat's passengers.

"We are closely monitoring the situation and are in the process of gathering more information," a press release from the Raiders said. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the passengers, their families and those involved in the search efforts."

The temperature in the gulf was in the mid 50s early this morning, according to the National Weather Service.



Let's hope the others are found alive :(

[baja200merk]

damn, it was blowin like mad the last few days. I saw 2 coast guard choppers fly over my house yesterday. Im only about 1/2 mile from the gulf as the crow flies. I figured somthin was goin on. Hope they are found a live! :eek:

[Cp]

No way to go boating. I hope they find those boys.

[Fish]

i sunk in a freak storm shark fishing in the gulf many years ago. by morning we almost could not move from hypothermia. They are going on the second night of cold weather/water and athletes like that do not have a whole lot of fat to keep them warm. Please keep them in your prayers that they will be found alive tomorrow morning.

[sho305]

Wow that sucks. We used to run Lake Michigan a lot, even in a 24 vee we would turn tail and run if it even started to get dark or windy. We had a marine radio and cell phones with us. Storms came in so fast and once it got too nasty you had to slow way down and got stuck out there. A 28 was a lot better. Best of luck to those guys, but seems like they would all have been hanging on to the boat if they were around.

[John S]

[quote=Fish;1602020]i sunk in a freak storm shark fishing quote]

That is the beginning to a worst day ever story if I ever heard one.:eek: Reminds me of a little movie I saw once. I would imagine the survivor they found has the story to the rest of the men aboard....sad stuff.

[Pro300x24LD]

They should have tied themselves to the boat.

We were out on Lake St. Clair last summer, wind was whipping pretty good and tossed up some 4 and 5 footers, we damn near stuffed my buddies 28 sunsation. Anyway we stopped for a second for something and the stupid bimbo with us wanted to jump in and take a pee....we handed her a rope and told her to tie it to her life jacket, she thought we were kidding.....

Now that I think about it, I could see wrapping a rope around your wrist or something, but if the boat started going down you could quickly get out of the rope, but more easily hold on if the boat stayed afloat.

[Ziemer]

Sad situation for sure. Hope they find the other three safely. ;)

Media pisses me off though. Anyone notice how the news reported heavily on how 2 NFL players were missing, and if you didn't follow the story carefully you'd miss that there were a total of four on the boat. :rolleyes: I feel bad for the families of the two former USF players. :(

[Hydrophobic guy]

Was my job in the early eighties to go find lost souls like them. Its a real emotional roller coaster.
The ocean when snotty is a terribly unforgiving place. Very sad indeed. :nonod:

[Cp]

....The ocean when snotty is a terribly unforgiving place. Very sad indeed. :nonod:

I was watching a concert DVD last evening. The band (Steve Hackett and friends) were covering Genesis' "Watcher of the Skies". When they came to the following line, I immediately thought of these guys in the Gulf. I had to walk to another room to collect myself.

"Though your ship be sturdy, no mercy has the sea." - Genesis

[zstevens]

on news the survivor said they werent wearing life jackets when it capsized ! they had to dive under to get them ! (they all did safely) it makes you wonder where or what there mind set was prior to ? conditions ? or breakdown since @ anchor ? sad just makes you wonder

[Slider]

News just said the Coast Guard was calling off the search at 6:30 EST. Doesn't look good...

[mr fun]

they were about to pull up anchor when they were capsized. none of them had life jackets on and they swam under the overturned boat and retrived them and all were wearing them from then on. the rest is unclear, herd a jacket was found in the area being searched. an EPIRB would have made this a routine recovery in my estimation. food for thought for those venturing offshore. God bless all involved. fun out

[Phil's other half...Sue.]

This is very very sad...prayers go out to all involved. Coast Guard called off the search. You never know a miracle might happen other people have been known to survive. When you face the ocean, you confront the most powerful force on earth.

[Pro300x24LD]

Sad Story.....I really hope by some grace of god that these guys magically turn up.