two NFL players lost at sea

[Luke]

CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Detroit Lions defensive end Corey Smith and Oakland Raiders linebacker Marquis Cooper were among four boaters missing Sunday off Florida's Gulf Coast, the Coast Guard and their agents said.

Smith and Cooper were on a 21-foot vessel that left Clearwater Pass on Saturday morning for a fishing trip and did not return as expected, the Coast Guard said Sunday. Crews used a helicopter and a 47-foot motor-life boat to search a 750-square mile area west of Clearwater Pass on Sunday.

"We are in contact with the Coast guard and Corey's family has been informed," Smith's agent Ron Del Duca told ESPN.com's Bill Williamson. "Corey is one of the good guys out there. We're just waiting for more information and hoping for the best."

Troy Asmus, one of Cooper's agents, said he has been in contact with the NFL and that the league is aware of the situation.

"I have been in contact with the Coast Guard and they are continuing to work hard to find everyone," Asmus told Williamson. "We are hoping and praying for the best."

Smith owned the boat and he and Cooper had been on fishing trips before, Del Duca said. The pair had been teammates on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2004.

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.

Del Duca said Smith was planning to start visiting teams as a free agent this week.

Cooper, 26, has played sparingly in five seasons with the Buccaneers, Seahawks, Jaguars, Steelers and Raiders. Cooper, who is 6-foot-3, 230 pounds, played college ball at Washington.

Rick Davis, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Tampa, 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.

Davis said the water was "extremely rough and choppy" on Sunday afternoon.

Lions spokesman Bill Keenist said he had heard Smith was aboard a missing boat but hadn't been able to confirm it.

"We're aware of the media reports," Keenist said Sunday afternoon. "We're trying to find out what we can."

[Luke]

Re: two NFL players lost at sea

Man what a horrible way too go.

[Mr. IWS]

Re: two NFL players lost at sea

This is bizarre because I was reading that the type of boat they were on has all this foam inside of it and is almost impossible to sink. Hope it turns out ok, but id dont look like it.

[Guest]

Re: two NFL players lost at sea

I'm thinking that the boat was most likely capsized due to the high waves.

[Mr. IWS]

Re: two NFL players lost at sea

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - The Coast Guard found a person clinging to an overturned boat off Florida's Gulf Coast on Monday, but could not immediately confirm whether it is the same boat with two NFL players aboard that went missing over the weekend.
Corey Smith, a free-agent defensive end who played for the Detroit Lions last season, and Marquis Cooper, an Oakland Raiders linebacker, as well as former University of South Florida players Will Bleakley and Nick Schuyler left on a fishing trip early Saturday. Weather conditions worsened through the day and the men did not return as expected in the evening.
The St. Petersburg Times reported that the boat found was, in fact, the one carrying Smith, Cooper, Bleakley and Schuyler.
According to Ray Sanchez, a cousin of Cooper who is at the Clearwater boat ramp where the men were last seen and has been getting updates from family, Schuyler is the boater who has been found. He was found west of Tampa Bay alive and clinging to a boat, Sanchez said, according to the Times.
The Coast Guard cutter Tornado found the boat and dispatched a smaller boat to rescue him.
According to the Times, Schuyler has been taken to Tampa General Hospital, and he is alive and talking.
The men were reported missing Sunday, and the Coast Guard had searched about 16,000 square miles of ocean for the 21-foot Everglades-manufactured boat by Monday morning.
Everglades boats are built with compressed foam encased in Fiberglas, which makes them difficult or impossible to sink.
Petty Officer Sondra-Kay Kneen confirmed searchers located a boat. No further details were available.

Rescuers were searching off of Florida's Gulf Coast near Clearwater. ( / FOXSports.com)
Waves had subsided to 6 to 8 feet, still enough for a small craft advisory, but considerably smaller than the 15-foot waves Sunday, National Weather Service meteorologist Todd Barron said.
Family members believed the men had lifejackets and flares on board. The Coast Guard had not received a distress signal from the men.
Cooper owns the boat, and he and Smith, who were teammates with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2004, have been on fishing trips before, according to Ron Del Duca, Smith's agent.
Coast Guard Capt. Timothy M. Close said at least one of the men was an experienced boater, and relatives provided the Coast Guard with GPS coordinates from previous fishing expeditions.
The 29-year-old Smith of Richmond, Va., is 6-foot-2, 250 pounds and had 30 tackles, including three sacks, and an interception in 12 games last season for the winless Lions.
Cooper, 26, who is 6-foot-3, 230 pounds, has spent five seasons with five different teams, appearing in 26 games with the Buccaneers in 2004 and 2005, but playing sparingly since. He grew up in Gilbert, Ariz., and his father Bruce is a prominent sportscaster for KPNX-TV in Phoenix.
Bruce Cooper said his son goes deep-sea fishing "any opportunity he gets." He joined his son in an excursion two years again and "swore I'd never do so again," Cooper said in a statement.
"Needless to say I am very concerned," he sad. "I am praying and hoping for the best."
Stu Schuyler, Nick's father, said his son had gone fishing with the same group last weekend. He said he left his son a message on his cell phone Saturday morning, asking him not to stay out too late because of the approaching storm.
"I'm optimistic," Schuyler said. "But I'm also realistic."
The Lions and Raiders issued statements saying their thoughts and prayers are with the families of all the missing men and those involved in the search.

[Luke]

Re: two NFL players lost at sea

Hopefully they will find the rest of them alive

[Guest]

Re: two NFL players lost at sea

Ok, just a curious question. If they were going out fishing why is that the guy who was just rescued dressed like he just came off the cover of GQ wearing a dress shirt and slacks?

Something to me is not sounding right in this whole deal. Any chance of some kind of a deal being done in the middle of nowhere, no witnesses etc. and they unexpectedly encountered the bad weather and everything turned tragic? To me, something just doesn't seem right.

[Mr. IWS]

Re: two NFL players lost at sea

They probably gave him some clothes to change into when then pulled him out of the water.

[Luke]

Re: two NFL players lost at sea

when they showed him on the stretcher he had a USCG(united states coast guard) jacket on not any GQ clothes .They probably gave them to him for the interviews like Zak said

[Mr. IWS]

Re: two NFL players lost at sea

It blows that they gave up on the search. On the one had, I understand, there probably dead, but If that was my kid out there, I would want them to keep looking, and at least give me some closure.