By now, everyone knows the sad story of Nick Schuyler and his boatmates who were lost at sea off the Florida coast. Well, the tragedy gets sadder, as Schuyler is now reportedly changing his story about what happened to his former South Florida teammate, Will Bleakley. Rather than watching Bleakley take off his lifevest and swim toward what he thought was a light in the distance, Schuyler now says his teammate died in his grasp, succumbing to severe hypothermia and dehydration.
(Bleakley: Died in teammate’s arms.)
The new and crushing rendition of Bleakley’s end came out via Bleakley’s father, who spoke with Schuyler on the phone Wednesday and relayed the coversation to the TAMPA TRIBUNE. For the record, Schuyler seems to be sticking to his original story that linebacker Marquis Cooper and defensive end Corey Smith both drifted away from the boat, but the revised story of Bleakley’s final hours is so sad that it seems understandable that Schuyler would have lied about how he died when first asked.
Here’s what Bleakley’s father, Bob Bleakley, told the TRIBUNE Schuyler had told him:
“Nick said to me that he would not be alive today if Will hadn’t been on the boat,” Bob Bleakley said. “His mother and his older brother and myself felt and knew this all along. When Nick said it, we were proud and relieved. (Schuyler told me) ‘Will stayed with me for 36 hours and was in my grasp when he lost consciousness and died.’ Nick tried CPR but Will did not respond. Then a wave hit and he couldn’t hold on to him anymore. That closed it for me.”
It’s hard to see how that wouldn’t close it for anyone, but the epitaph on both Cooper and Smith’s final hours isn’t nearly as complete. Cooper’s family is hiring a private search via planes and qualified charter boats, paying all interested $50 an hour to search for their son.
(The ongoing search for Marquis Cooper and Corey Smith.)
Smith’s family, for one, wants to talk to Schuyler to see if he actually watched him die the way he did Bleakley.
Smith’s sister, Yolanda Newbill said that she would like to talk to Nick Schuyler and hear his account of what happened. Newbill said she doesn’t believe some reports that Smith and Marquis Cooper eventually gave up and drifted away. “Until I speak to Nick, that story is pure speculation,” Newbill said.
At this point, hopes for finding Cooper or Smith alive are beyond grasping at straws, but it’s hard to blame the family for continuing the search. If Schuyler can deliver more details about how they “drifted away”, it might make it easier for both the Cooper and Smith families to accept that their sons are gone, but its clear that the former South Florida Bull also has to recover significantly both mentally and physically before his full story can be told.
“He is the only survivor. A great friend of my son,” Bob Bleakley said of Schuyler. “He has got to come to grips with this before he can figure it out.”
12:19 pm on March 5th, 2009
It has to be a horrible feeling watching your friend die in your arms.
12:39 pm on March 5th, 2009
What an a**hole. The guy who wrote this and implied that Schuyler was lying about something, is a total dick. No one could know how they would react or what they would remember after an ordeal like that. Quit trying to be an investigative journalist and stick to just reporting what happened.
1:15 pm on March 5th, 2009
And then, they drifted away …
8:45 pm on March 5th, 2009
And when the movie of this story is made, this scene will feature Cutting Crew's "I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight".
1:33 am on March 6th, 2009
people, it is not beyond the realm of speculation that it became a survival of the fittest and every man for himself situation out there. i do find it hard to believe that the NFL players just gave up after 2 to 4 hrs while bleakley lasted 36 hrs (according to schuyler) and schuyler lasted 47 hrs.
we might never know exactly what happened, but in my opinion, the position schuyler was found in clutching the engine while sitting upright was probably the premium position and it looks from the pics that only one guy could have had that spot at a time.
i'm just saying……..
2:17 pm on March 7th, 2009
Untill Nick Schuyler is able to figure out in his own mind, what happened, I think reporters ,should stop putting words in his mouth.
The suffering that he went through, has to be impossible for any of us to understand.
He loved all these guys, .
For some ignorant reporter to report that Nick Schuyler was lying is ridiculous.
Nick may never be able to recall every step of this horrible ordeal, after all he was there trying to stay alive , while trying to help the others.
It is a sad day for all. and will be for a long time.
4:46 pm on March 8th, 2009
NOONE KNOWS HOW IT IS TO BE IN THAT TERRIBLE SITUATION IF THEY WERE'NT IN IT. THE LONE SURVIVOR WILL PROBABLY ALWAYS HAVE NITEMARES ABOUT IT, IT WILL NOT BE EASY TO PUT BEHIND U. PICS WOULD ALWAYS PLAY IN MY HEAD, AND ALL OF THE IFS. PEOPLE HAVE SOME COMPASSION FOR THIS YOUNG MAN PLEEZ. HE LIVED THIS NITEMARE
5:36 pm on March 11th, 2009
Their is more to this story. I'm not insinuating anything but Nick is holding something back. How blind do you have to be to realize that. How was he able to prop a body on an over turned boat, thats rocking vigurously in order to conduct CPR????
9:59 pm on March 16th, 2009
f*** off you are so wrong
10:02 pm on March 16th, 2009
get a f***ing life …. take a look at your own life
always looking at the worst out of humanity - what if and better yet how about we just believe this guys story and give some hope
back to the universe that we are all humanitarians and would always do the best
for our neighbor no matter how idealistic that
sounds - you think??????