Archive for "Coast Guard"

Sports: Coast Guard Report Details Tragic Moments

March 17th, 2009

Coast Guard records released Monday tell a harrowing tale of the two NFL players and their friends who were lost at sea off the west coast of Florida last month. The 23-page report, released to The Associated Press via a Freedom of Information Act request, provides the lone survivor’s account of what happened in what was likely the last moments in the lives of the four fishing buddies. Read more.

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Coast Guard Recover One Man At Sea, Three Football Players Still Missing

March 2nd, 2009

NFL Player's Boat Found NFL Player's Boat at Sea

According to the Associated Press, one of the four men missing off Florida’s west coast was rescued Monday afternoon. The man was identified as Nick Schuyler, a former University of South Florida football player.The Coast Guard says they discovered Schuyler hanging on a boat they believe belongs to Oakland Raiders linebacker Marquis Cooper, who is still missing along with NFL free agent Corey Smith and William Bleakley, also a former player at the University of South Florida. The four men failed to return from a fishing trip in water off Clearwater, Fla., on Saturday. “It feels like my greatest fear coming true – it doesn’t feel real,” Cooper’s wife, Rebekah, told TV station WTSP in Tampa on Sunday afternoon. “I’m just waiting for a phone call.” Schuyler told officials that the boat was overturned on Saturday evening when a storm hit, prompting the four men to cling to the boat while awaiting help. It is still unclear what happened to the other three men. Rough weather has hampered the effort, but “it’s still a very active search,” Coast Guard Capt. Tim Close told reporters Sunday afternoon. The search-and-rescue effort was being conducted primarily by air, because of the conditions at sea, although authorities deployed patrol boats as well, Close said. Searchers have focused on 750 square miles of open water in the Gulf of Mexico, about 50 miles west of Clearwater Pass. From there, the men had left the Seminole Boat Ramp in a 21-foot single-engine boat about 6:30 a.m. Saturday, the Coast Guard said. “Fishing is his first love, it always has been,” said Rebekah Cooper. “I have a lot of faith in him out there.”

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Two NFL Ballers Among Four Missing At Sea

March 2nd, 2009

Two NFL ballers are among four fishermen missing since Saturday off Florida’s west coast. Oakland Raiders linebacker Marquis Cooper and NFL free agent Corey Smith, who played for the Detroit Lions for the past three seasons, were targets of a massive search after failing to return from a fishing trip in water off Clearwater, Fla., family members and colleagues told reporters Sunday. “It feels like my greatest fear coming true – it doesn’t feel real,” Cooper’s wife, Rebekah, told TV station WTSP in Tampa on Sunday afternoon. “I’m just waiting for a phone call.” CNN reports that the Coast Guard began searching around 2 a.m. Sunday after it learned that four men – Cooper, Smith, and former University of South Florida football players William Bleakley and Nick Schuyler – had not returned from their fishing trip Saturday evening as expected. Rough weather has hampered the effort, but “it’s still a very active search,” Coast Guard Capt. Tim Close told reporters Sunday afternoon. The search-and-rescue effort was being conducted primarily by air, because of the conditions at sea, although authorities deployed patrol boats as well, Close said. Searchers have focused on 750 square miles of open water in the Gulf of Mexico, about 50 miles west of Clearwater Pass. From there, the men had left the Seminole Boat Ramp in a 21-foot single-engine boat about 6:30 a.m. Saturday, the Coast Guard said. “Fishing is his first love, it always has been,” said Rebekah Cooper. “I have a lot of faith in him out there.”

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