ChiefsPlanet - Football Coast Guard suspends search for missing NFL players

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/03/01/flo...ers/index.html

2 NFL players among boaters missing in Florida

CLEARWATER, Florida (CNN) -- Two NFL players were among four boaters missing Sunday off Florida's Gulf Coast, an agent for one of the players said.
Corey Smith, left, and Marquis Cooper are two of the men missing in Florida, according to Smith's agent.

Corey Smith, left, and Marquis Cooper are two of the men missing in Florida, according to Smith's agent.

Ron Del Duca, agent for Corey Smith, told CNN that Smith and Oakland Raiders linebacker Marquis Cooper were among four men who had not returned from a boating trip Saturday in waters off Clearwater, Florida.

Smith, currently a free agent with the NFL, played defensive end for the Detroit Lions for the past three seasons.

The Coast Guard said it was directing a search Sunday for the boaters. Rough weather has hampered the effort, but "it's still a very active search," Coast Guard Capt. Tim Close told reporters Sunday afternoon.

Poor visibility from heavy waves forced the search-and-rescue effort to be conducted primarily by air, though authorities deployed patrol boats as well, Close said.

Searchers were focusing on an area about 50 miles west of Clearwater Pass, where the four embarked from the Seminole Boat Ramp about 6:30 a.m. Saturday, the Coast Guard said.

"Yesterday the weather conditions were relatively good, but the weather picked up overnight," Close said. "It's a small vessel for the conditions that are out there right now."

The search began around 2 a.m. Sunday after Coast Guard personnel got a tip from a caller that four men -- Cooper, Smith, Nick Schuyler and William Bleakley -- had not returned from their fishing trip Saturday evening as expected.

Close said authorities had not received a distress signal from the boaters. Cooper owns the boat, but Bleakley was the only experienced boater on board, Close said.

The boat, a center-console vessel manufactured by Everglades Boats, is billed as "unsinkable," Close said.

The Coast Guard focused its search on 750 square miles of open water west of Clearwater Pass.

Smith and Cooper were teammates with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for part of the 2004 season, when Cooper was a rookie, according to their biography pages on NFL.com.

Smith, who entered the league with Tampa Bay in 2002, went on to play for the Washington Redskins before moving to the Lions for the 2006 season.

Cooper has played for six teams in his five-season career, according to NFL.com.

The Detroit Lions released a statement acknowledging that Smith was among the missing men, adding, "Our thoughts and prayers are with all the passengers, their families and all those involved in the search efforts."

The Coast Guard asked anyone with information on the boaters to contact its St. Petersburg, Florida, office at 727-824-7506.