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Much later, March 17: http://media.tbo.com/pdf/031609mbreport.pdf">the full Coast Guard report provided to The Associated Press Monday under a Freedom of Information Act request. (pdf) and more details from TBO at this link.

Update: The Coast Guard called off the search for the remaining boaters at sunset.

Coast Guard photo by Fireman Adam Campbell; below, a detail enlarged.

A Coast Guard boat approaches Nick Schuyler, a former University of South Florida football player, as he clings to a capsized boat Monday off the Florida coast.

As three friends slipped away, Nick Schuyler clung to an overturned boat in the Gulf of Mexico. St Petersburg Times today:

CLEARWATER, Fla. -- They were anchored about 38 miles offshore Saturday afternoon when high waves flipped their small boat.

The four football players, who had been fishing for amberjack, were thrown into the frothy Gulf of Mexico. Frigid, 6-foot seas crashed over their heads.

Struggling in their life jackets, they somehow managed to make it back to the boat. But the 21-foot Everglades fishing craft was upside-down. And though the men were in their 20s and strong -- two played for the NFL and the others had played for USF -- they couldn't right the boat.

So the four friends clung to the slick, white hull.

Hours passed. Gusts of 10, then 20 mph slapped their faces. Darkness descended.

By then, experts say, the men must have begun to lose feeling in their limbs. Their faces probably felt frozen. They likely became disoriented.

For more than 12 hours, they gripped the boat as the temperature dropped to 60 degrees and the waves climbed over 10 feet.

By Monday, only one man was left holding on...

Coast Guard locates boat that carried missing NFL players; one survivor found . Blog post by of the Los Angeles Times' Pete Thomas:

The U.S. Coast Guard has confirmed that the boat carrying NFL players Corey Smith and Marquis Cooper, and two others, has been found, along with one survivor. The St. Petersburg Times is reporting that former University of South Florida football player Nick Schuyler was found alive and clinging to the boat 38 miles west of Tampa Bay. The other three men remain missing.

The U.S. Coast Guard has found an overturned boat with one survivor off Florida's Gulf Coast, but it remains unclear whether it was the boat carrying two NFL players and two other men who had embarked on a fishing trip Saturday from Clearwater, Fla.

Petty Officer Sondra-Kay Kneen said only that searchers located an overturned boat today.

Searchers, hampered by rough weather, have been looking for a 21-foot vessel carrying Corey Smith, a Detroit Lions free-agent defensive end; Marquis Cooper, an Oakland Raiders linebacker; and Will Bleakley and Nick Schuyler, both former University of South Florida players.

Coast Guard video of the Medevac rescue of Nick Schuyler. (This does not look like a fun lift for a traumatized conscious person.)

Pete Thomas at the L.A. Times continues

(It should be noted that four very large men is a lot of weight for a 21-foot boat to accommodate.)

I know a little about this kind of thing as I've owned two 21-foot fishing boats over the years and have been at sea numerous times during small-craft advisories.

One experience stands out above others: I left Marina del Rey with my brother and two friends one morning, and when it began to get rough we ducked into King Harbor in Redondo Beach and fished there for two hours before noticing 10-foot waves cascading over the breakwater.

Revisiting her old hometown of St. Pete, Athima Chansanchai at the Seattle PI.went out in the same waters in another 21-foot boat Saturday (Channel was choppy the day Marquis Cooper went missing):.

Tampa Bay Online is all over this: Rescued Boater Was In Water Since Saturday Afternoon includes a 62-image photo gallery.

Schuyler reportedly told rescuers the other players were also wearing life jackets. The Coast Guard is still looking for the other three men.

Originally published Monday, 10:56 p.m.

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