NFL has announced that no member of the Detroit Lions will be allowed to wear Corey Smith’s jersey number as it will be retired. Smith, is one of the three men lost at sea in Florida when their fishing boat capsized off the Florida Gulf Coast almost a month ago. Galen Duncan, Lions player development director, told mourners at Smith’s hometown church that number 93 would be retired for a year in honor of a player of extraordinary heart and competitive drive. “I want to tell you something about Corey Smith playing with pain,” Duncan said, according to the Associated Press. “I’d tell the coaches, ‘You’ve got to watch Corey because he’s not going to tell you he’s hurt.’ If you could see the way this man worked.”      

As previously reported, the coast guard rescued one man, Nick Schuyler, who was clinging from the overturned boat on March 2. Bodies of Smith, Oakland Raiders linebacker Marquis Cooper, and former University of South Florida player William Bleakley have not been found.

This tragic story still doesn’t sit well with me…I just think there is more to the story to what really happened on their fishing trip. Bottom line, this is so terribly sad.