Nick Schuyler Found!

The boat carrying four passengers, including NFL players Marquis Cooper and Corey Smith, which was reported missing from a fishing trip early Sunday morning, was found by the Coast Guard on Monday morning with a survivor, Nick Schuyler, clinging to it.

Nick Schuyler has been found. Nick Schuyler has been found from the Marquis Cooper missing boat. Nick Schuyler was with the two NFL players and another passenger Saturday when their boat went missing at sea off Tampa.

Now Schuyler (wrongly first identified as Skyler) has been found hanging on a boat 30 miles off Clearwater, Florida Monday morning. Schuyler says all four passengers were wearing life vests.

According to the St. Petersburg Times, Schuyler, a former University of South Florida football player, was discovered with the boat about 30 miles west of the Tampa Bay area. The find occurred during an exhaustive search by the Coast Guard that covered 16,000 square miles of the Gulf of Mexico.

Stu Schuyler, Nick's father, described Monday's news: "Like God heard me." He was clearly emotional when discussing his son's future on Sunday.

Schuyler also told 10 Connects the first time his son went fishing with Cooper and Smith was last weekend. That trip lasted fifteen hours.

"I was worried sick and told him never to do that to me again," said Schuyler. "Now, I'm hopeful but still expecting the worst." Through tears, he added, "[My son is] my life, I don't know what I'll do.

Detroit Lions defensive end Corey Smith and Oakland Raiders linebacker Marquis Cooper as well as former college player, Will Bleakley, all remain missing.

corey smith and marquis cooper missing

The Coast Guard is currently searching for a missing fishing boat which holds "at least" two NFL players among a total of four passengers, according to a report.Lions free-agent defensive end Corey Smith is one of four fishermen in a small boat who are missing in the Gulf of Mexico off Tampa.Beside Smith, linebacker Marquis Cooper of the Oakland Raiders,also are among four people on a fishing boat reported missing off the Gulf Coast of Florida, according to broadcast and print reports in the Tampa area.

Smith, who spent the past three seasons with the Lions, was with a group of friends that left shore near Clearwater Pass around 6:30 a.m. Saturday in a 21-foot center-console boat, the U.S. Coast Guard said. The Coast Guard is using a 47-foot boat, a helicopter and an airplane to search a 750-square mile area west of Clearwater Pass.

The boat is believed to be in distress, according to the reports. The waters there in the Gulf of Mexico reportedly are extremely choppy and Coast Guard crews are searching a 750-square-mile area for the boat.

Search efforts began about a half-hour after the boat was reported missing at 1:30 a.m. today, the Tampa Tribune reported.

Both Smith and Cooper began their NFL careers with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Ron Del Duca, Smith's agent, told the Associated Press that Smith owns the boat and had been on fishing trips previously with Cooper, a former teammate.

"They've assured me that they're deploying all available resources to look for these guys and get them back," Del Duca told the AP.

Smith, 29, is a Richmond native who played at North Carolina State in college. He played for the Buccaneers from 2002 to 2004, and had a stint with the San Francisco 49ers before joining the Lions in 2006. He played in 12 games for Detroit this past season and now is a free agent.

Cooper, 26, played for the Buccaneers in 2004 and 2005, and also spent time with the Minnesota Vikings, Pittsburgh Steelers, Seattle Seahawks and Jacksonville Jaguars. He played in eight games for the Raiders this past season.