Football Friends’ Doomed Boating Trip Recounted

The lone survivor among four football players on an ill-fated fishing trip in the Gulf of Mexico last March has written a book about their final hours together as they fought to stay alive.

Not Without Hope, written by Nick Schuyler and New York Times sportswriter Jere Longman, went on sale March 2, the anniversary of Schuyler’s rescue. The only other time he has shared the story publicly was in an August episode of HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.

Schuyler’s story is told primarily from his perspective. The book also includes memories from family members, rescuers and doctors, reports from the Coast Guard and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and news accounts.

Schuyler, then 24, a former University of South Florida football player, was on fishing trip with former teammate Will Bleakley, 25, and NFL players Marquis Cooper, 26, and Corey Smith, 29. The men had spent the day fishing in stormy seas about 70 miles off the coast of Clearwater, FL, in Cooper’s 21-foot Everglades boat.

They tried to raise the anchor to leave, but it had become stuck. Instead of cutting the anchor’s line, they gunned the engine, which caused the boat to fill with water and overturn. They spent the next several hours clinging to the overturned hull, praying and talking about their families as helicopters passed over them, unable to see them among the white caps.

“We began to huddle together, cuddling almost, trying to stay warm as the night went on,” Schuyler recounted. “I thought for a moment that it was weird, four grown men clustered together like puppies or kittens, but it was necessary if we were going to maintain any body heat. I could feel everybody shivering and hear their teeth chattering.”

A Coast Guard boat found Schuyler 18 hours after the boat had capsized. By then, the other three men had disappeared.