In a rapidly developing story filled with twists, NFL players Corey Smith and Marquis Cooper remain missing after disappearing during a fishing trip in Clearwater, off Florida's Gulf Coast on Saturday. The pair, along with two former South Florida players, were reported missing on Sunday morning, a day after they were scheduled to return. The group was on a 21-foot vessel owned by one of the NFL players when it vanished without a trace with all of them aboard. Oddly, Coast Guard officials say they received no Mayday call nor did they spot any flares from the distressed men. Despite this, we do know that at least one of the men was an experienced boater and often provided GPS coordinates to relatives from previous fishing expeditions.

On Monday afternoon, there was a dramatic development. The Coast Guard said it found a survivor clinging to the wreckage of boat. That person is believed to be University of South Florida player Nick Schuyler.




According to an ESPN.com report:
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."

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.

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, is 6-foot-3, 230 pounds. He 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.

Smith and Cooper were teammates on the Tampa Bay Bucaneers in 2004.


The search continues for the three remaining men.
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.