The Search For Two Missing NFL Players & Their Friend Has Been Called Off Because They Are Presumed To Be Dead!

Everyone was holding on to the hope that the missing NFL players & their friend would be found.Only one person was found clinging to the capsized boat on Monday.Hypothermia may have caused the other men on the boat to drift away.Right now,it is unclear why they didn't all stay together.And unfortunately,this incident isn't uncommon.I just pray for all of the families of the missing men.The search has been called off because it is unlikely to be a rescue at this point.Here's more from CNN:

"Bad weather, poor planning, a lack of safety equipment. Any one could put a boater in the kind of peril that befell two NFL players and their two friends off the coast of Florida last weekend, Coast Guard officials say. And such incidents happen all too often. The capsizing of the 21-foot fishing boat carrying the four men to a favorite fishing spot in the Gulf of Mexico was the latest of 200 such incidents reported to the U.S. Coast Guard in the past five months.

"The oceans are an unforgiving environment," said Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Chris O'Neil. "Weather can be unpredictable. Any time you are in an open environment, you are taking a certain amount of risk."

That risk includes being lost at sea like Victor "Marquis" Cooper, an Oakland Raiders linebacker; Corey Smith, a Detroit Lions free-agent defensive end; and their friend William Bleakly.

The fourth member of the group, Nick Schuyler, a former University of South Florida football player, was found around noon Monday clinging to the upturned boat in rough seas about 35 miles west of Clearwater, Florida.

The four men had left for a fishing trip from Seminole Boat Ramp in Clearwater Pass on Saturday.

The U.S. Coast Guard is unable to provide specific numbers of how many people go missing from boating accidents like this past weekend's, but officials say that since last fall there have been three people who have not been found after triggering Coast Guard searches.

Those incidents can range from an unaccounted swimmer to a passenger gone missing after a boat sinks, said O'Neil, at the Coast Guard headquarters in Washington D.C.

Capsizing is one of the leading boating accidents, according to the Coast Guard's most recent report on recreational boating in 2007. Officials report there were 398 accidents from capsizing, causing 204 deaths and 284 injuries in 2007. Capsized boats cost nearly $1.8 million a year in property damages, officials say.

Collision with vessels or fixed objects and falling overboard are other major boating accidents."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.