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Player's Father: Boaters Report Won't Bring Back His Son

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By HOWARD ALTMAN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 27, 2009

Speaking over the whine of the pneumatic drills in his Citrus County auto shop, Bob Bleakley said hadn't had time to look at the report, released moments before, outlining what investigators say happened during the boating accident that took the life of his son, Will, and NFL players Marquis Cooper and Corey Smith..

He did visit last Sunday with the only one who really knows what happened.

But details that sole survivor Nick Schuyler provided to investigators never came up, Bleakley said.

"Look, I don't know what happened," he said. "We had a nice, cordial visit. We didn't talk about the boating tragedy."

Bleakley said the two drove to Crystal River High because Schuyler wanted to see Will's high school.

The father of a man who lost a son at sea and the man who survived wanted to talk about what happened, Bleakley said.

But they could not find the words.

"He is a very quiet person," Bleakley said. "We ate dinner, talked about (weight) training, that is pretty much it. We were hoping to talk about the incident, but neither party wanted to bring it up."

Though he did not learn any details, Bleakley called the meeting "heartwarming."

"It was one of Will's best friends," he said. Schuyler and Will Bleakley were both University of South Florida football players. "We never sat down with him. I met him once at a graduation, but didn't get to know him at all."

There were visible signs of Schuyler's struggle to survive, said Bleakley.

"He is still hurt," he said. "He had open sores from the accident. He said they are coming along."

Bleakley said Schuyler's mental condition was much difficult to gauge.

"I didn't know him before, but he was very, very quiet, and I am assuming he was quiet before," he said.

Bleakley said his family has spent a lot of time responding to people who have reached out to them.

"We sent out 150 or more thank you notes," he said. "We received 500 to 1,000 letters. We didn't count them. We received maybe 50 to 100 letters from people we never heard of around the country. It was such a public event with NFL players and a lack of news at this time of year. A lot of people heard about it. If Nick and Will were alone on the boat, it would not have gotten out of South Florida I bet."

Bleakley said he is not going to comment on the detail of the report and that nothing is going to bring back his son.

As for finding out more from Schuyler, he said that may happen one day.

"We promised to get back together sometime," he said.

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