By The Survivors Club Staff
August 20, 2009
The sole survivor of a February boating accident that killed two NFL players and a former college player says he's haunted every day by "survivor's guilt" and can't explain why he was only one who survived the ordeal.
"I still ask every day, 'Why me?'" says Nick Schuyler, the 24-year-old sole survivor of a boating accident that took the lives of two NFL players and a former college player.
"The hardest time of day for me is at nighttime," Schuyler says in an interview on HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel. "I toss and turn, and your mind's weak. You get started thinking about everything, the same thing: 'Why me?' I don't know."
Schuyler says he got seasick on the February fishing trip near Clearwater, Florida, and donned a sweat shirt, pants, shoes, gloves and a hat, which ultimately helped him overcome hypothermia, which precipitated the deaths of the others who were only wearing shorts and T-shirts.
Oakland Raiders linebacker Marquis Cooper, free-agent NFL defensive lineman Corey Smith and former USF player William Bleakley perished on the trip.
Schuyler was rescued after 46 hours when Coast Guard searchers found him sitting on the hull of the overturned boat.
The boat flipped over, Schuyler says, when the men tried to pull up the anchor that was stuck on the bottom. The men weren't able to right the boat, which was swamped by 14-foot waves.
"You don't realize — and I'm not the religious type — how many times you say, 'Please, God,'" he said. "When I saw that boat, I said, 'Thank you God. Thank you God.'
"I still can't believe it. Lucky. Lucky."
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