Details Revealed In NFL Players Tragedy
Last year we chronicled the news stories coming out of Florida about the death of three NFL football players from hypothermia when their boat capsized in the Gulf of Mexico 75 miles from shore. Observers were perplexed at the time as to how one of the best and most seaworthy center consoles made could have come to grief. In his just released book, Not Without Hope, the sole survivor, Nick Schuyler explains what happened.
 Nick Schuyler, the lone survivor. |
When the four friends finally decided to leave their fishing spot they untied the anchor rode from the cleat on the bow but could not get it up. Even when they threw their backs into it, the anchor would not budge. Then they decided to tie the anchor on the port stern cleat and pull up the anchor with the engine, figuring that either the anchor would come up or they would break the line.
What they hadn’t counted on was the anchor would not come up AND the rode would not break. The stern of the boat had only one way to go – down – and the boat quickly swamped, then capsized, according to Schuyler. He says he survived because we was wearing his coat at the time of the accident which kept him warm.
(FYI—Some family members of the deceased men are taking issue with the appropriateness of the survivor writing this book. We hope that boaters everywhere will learn from the mistakes made by the crew that day and thereby be safer as a result.—Ed.)