The U.S. Coast Guard is searching for four men in a fishing boat that went missing off the coast of Clearwater, Florida Saturday night (2/28). Two of the missing men are current NFL players.
Coast Guard officials got a call at 1:30 a.m. Sunday morning that a 21-foot boat carrying Lions DE Corey Smith (left), Raiders LB Marquis Cooper and two other men did not return Saturday night as expected.
A sports agent confirmed to the AP that Smith and Cooper were on the missing boat, which was owned by Cooper.
Stu Schuyler, the father of Nick Schuyler, one of the missing boaters, told WTSP in Tampa that he’s “expecting the worst.” “He’s my life,” Stu Schuyler told WTSP. “I don’t know what I’ll do.”
The AP identified the fourth person on the boat as Will Bleakley.
The boat set sail at 6:30 a.m. Saturday from Clearwater. The Coast Guard launched a search and rescue operation around 2 a.m. Sunday with a 47-foot boat and helicopter in a 750 square mile area. But poor weather and choppy seas is making the search difficult.
Coast Guard Captain Timothy Close said waves were up to 14 feet and winds were at 30MPH on Sunday. “A 21-foot boat is a relatively small vessel to be 50 miles off shore in bad weather conditions,” he said.
The Coast Guard did not receive a distress call from Cooper’s boat.
WTSP said Cooper’s truck is still parked at a boat ramp with a 24-hour parking pass in the window. Stu Schuyler said his son had been on a 15-hour fishing trip with Cooper and Smith last weekend. “I was worried sick and told him never to do that to me again,” Schuyler told WTSP. LINK
