An ex-NFL player is making headlines after swimming nine miles to reach the safety of land after a wave knocked him off his vessel off the coast of Florida.
Former Miami Dolphins fullback Rob Konrad took his boat out to sea and headed off from Boca Raton to a servicing station about 30 miles north of Riviera Beach. A lifelong boater, the trip was routine for Konrad, and he began to fish while setting the boat on autopilot. It was then that a massive wave came out of nowhere and knocked him out of the boat while he was reeling in a fish. Konrad wasn’t wearing a life vest, and the boat quickly moved away at a speed he wasn’t able to catch up to. There were also no other boats nearby. Since it was late in the afternoon and there were a few hours of sunlight left, he made the decision to swim his way to safety – all nine miles, a trek that took him 16 hours.
At a press conference, Konrad – accompanied by his wife – described his harrowing ordeal and brush with death.
He recounted being stung by a jellyfish and also saw sharks swimming around him. About 10 hours into his marathon-like swim, he encountered a recreational fishing boat and even saw a US Coast Guard helicopter, but both potential lifesaving vehicles failed to notice him. He continued his swim for another six hours until seeing lights on the horizon. By around 4:30 a.m., he was washed ashore. Barely unable to move due to sheer exhaustion, he managed to stagger to a nearby home where his ordeal finally came to a merciful end.
He was taken to the hospital where he was treated for severe dehydration and rhabdomyolysis. For the ex-NFL player who swam nine miles to stay alive, it was all about surviving for the sake of his two daughters.
Rob Konrad’s conditioning as an NFL player likely allowed him to swim nine miles, a distance that would be an extreme challenge even for professional swimmers. Many experts are also calling his survival act incredible, noting that factors like wind, current, muscle fatigue, and salt water getting in the eyes can quickly hamper a swimmer’s efforts. Surely, physical stamina played a huge factor, but you also can’t discount the human will, and Konrad clearly has a ton of it or else the public would be reading about him becoming forever lost at sea.
[photo credit: Pete Sheffield]
Ex-NFL Player Swims Nine Miles To Shore After Falling Off Boat
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