Silver and Black Report

Marquis Cooper

Nick Schuyler, the sole survivor of a boating accident that claimed the lives of Oakland Raiders linebacker Marquis Cooper, former University of South Florida player William Bleakley and free-agent lineman Corey Smith, is releasing a book about the unfortunate incident.

Schuyler details the tragedy that occurred February of 2009, during a fishing trip on the Gulf of Mexico.

The book is titled, “Not Without Hope.”

Schuyler was rescued by the US Coast Guard after 46-hours of Cooper’s boat being tipped over.

On Thursday, Schuyler is scheduled to appear on the Oprah Winfrey Show.

In this final installment of SBReport’s interview with Isaiah Ekejiuba, the special teams standout detailed the importance having Tom Cable as head coach, gives you insight on how he handled being a free-agent this off-season and reminisces about Marquis Cooper.

SBREPORT: The organization believed enough in Tom Cable to take the interim label off and will look to let him lead this team after a solid end to the 2008 campaign. How do you feel about the front office giving Cable the opportunity to continue his work on the sidelines?

EKEJIUBA: “I think between the players and the fans, there is a lot of new energy right now with coach Cable. This guy from time he took over, he had a strong belief on this team and he kept saying, ‘this is a good team.’ And he would say that almost everyday. ‘This is a good team – win or lose.’”

At the end of the year, when we had nothing to play for, we were out of the playoffs, he kept saying, ‘this is a good team.’ And we went out there and showed we can play some really good football the last two games of the season. So that brought a lot of energy and a lot of doubters came back on board.

A lot of fans stuck with us and we appreciate that. But when we won the last two games, a couple of people that slipped off the bandwagon were coming back on. They started seeing what the players had already seen in coach Cable in the locker room. He loves the Raiders. He loves winning. And he loves this team. When you have somebody like that that is willing to do anything to win, its fun to play for a guy like that.”

Raider fans have had unwavering support of their team through the recent dark days. Ekejiuba’s family, particularly his sister Felicia and her friends, have had a safe haven to watch, experience and take part of the happenings within the Raider Nation family through the welcoming arms of The Jersey Shore Oakland Raider Booster Club. The JSRBC has helped bind the ties of unity within the Ekejiuba family, who have that New Jersey connection and Raider fans located in the east coast.

Club President and Founder Gary M. Brown, who was a driving force in facilitating this exclusive interview also helped contribute to the content found in this three-part dialogue, received the Ekejiuba’s into the club and Isaiah commented about the loyalty and warm-heartedness the members have shown in making life away for his sister a lot easier when she watches games with the fleet of Raider fans in Jersey. “That’s an awesome group and they show dedication and commitment. Like I’ve said, it’s wonderful knowing there is that type of love and support that the fans give the team. My sister has talked about [JSRBC], I’ve heard nothing but classy things and when there is support in Oakland to  New Jersey like that, it binds all together.”

 He continued, “I’ll try to get back there [to the east coast] in June.

 “My sister and her boyfriend are always, after I go home, they are always on ‘em [Raiderfans.net and SBReport.net]. Matter of fact, that’s where I get a lot information, that I don’t know, that everybody else knows before me. Those guys from Jersey are as good as it gets and knowing that is really encouraging.” 

Ekejiuba has high hopes for the special teams as well. Partly because of the continuity they will have after re-signing most of the players he feels are cornerstones on that unit. When asked about his expectations regarding John Fassel’s group, he stated, “We talked a lot; we want to be the best unit in the league. You don’t want to be second to anybody. People do, people from different teams, we talk about other players, watch other teams. They are going to give you an example, well, here are the top four special teams from last year. So our group, being in tact, its one year to be comfortable. We re-sign a pro-bowl punter, the best in the league, and there is no question to me that with him, he’s our captain and the way Shane [Lechler] controls things, and coach Fassel being with us last year, I think we are just going to keep getting better. I see a lot of good things for us.”

The Raiders inked Ekejiuba to a 3-year deal for $5.4 million with a $1.25 million signing bonus. In the first year of the contract, the Pro Bowl alternate last season will earn $2.45 million. SBReport inquired about the negotiations and whether or not he had interest from other clubs when free agency began.

“With the whole negotiation, I really didn’t deal a lot with that. My agent did a great job talking to the Raiders and in trying to take a lot of stress off of me. It’s a very stressful period; you don’t know what the future holds, so he did a lot, helping me trying to relax and getting my mind off that.

I expressed to him I wanted to come back. They told me we want you back. It would be nice to have you back. So that’s how we started to talk. There were a couple of other teams that were interested in me. I was going to go on some visits, but I talked to coach Cable and Al Davis and we ironed a lot of things out and got the deal done without me having to go visit any of the other teams. So that took a lot of pressure off and it showed that the Raiders appreciated me and its good to be back.”

SBREPORT: The deal is among the highest in the league for a special teamer. Do you now feel that there is more of a burden on you to play at a high level to justify the contract?

EKEJIUBA: “Yeah, I think so. You getting a lot of money to do a job and if you are getting paid for it, you have to do an excellent job, or they wouldn’t give you that kind of money. There is pressure to play better.

I don’t think the Raiders are putting more pressure on me than what I put on myself. I know how good of a player I can be. I know where I am and I know where I want to get. I put more pressure on myself with or without the contract to go out there and prove that I am the best, because that what it’s about. At the end of the day, are they going to say, ‘wow, he was a great player’, or, ‘yeah, he was alright.’

You don’t want them to talk about you and say, ‘he played well when he didn’t have money, now he has a little money and his level of play has fell off.’ I want to go to the Pro-Bowl every year, I want to go out there and make plays. And don’t let that drop-off. There is a lot of pressure, but there is more from myself than from the organization.”

Ekejiuba is looking forward to continue his career in Silver & Black. Something he is proud of, especially playing in front of one of the most rabid fans in the NFL. He talked about ‘the Black Hole’ and the dedication of the Raider Nation:

“Oh, the Black Hole is crazy. You can’t really explain it in words. I try to talk to a couple of my friends that are on other teams that talk about their fan base and I tell them, ‘if you come to the Black Hole, its an experience you will never forget.’ And those guys, I have a couple of friends from other teams and they come out here and play us and they say, ‘damn those fans are crazy.’ And yeah, that is what we go through every week we play here. We have great fans, rain or shine, win or lose, they are there supporting us. It’s wonderful being out there seeing the kind of love and support that the fans give the team. That makes you want to give back. They are giving up their time and effort to come here and watch us play; we want to win for us, but we want to win for the Raider family, fans, players and the whole organization.”

This off-season has been a tough one for the Raider family due to the unfortunate incident that has occurred to Marquis Cooper and the boaters he was with near Clearwater Florida. Cooper set out on a fishing trip early March 1 from the Seminole Boat Ramp in Clearwater with three friends — former Buccaneer Corey Smith and two former University of South Florida players, Will Bleakley and Nick Schuyler. Since, only Schuyler has been found clinging to the overturned raft and the rest of the groups has been presumed dead.

An emotional Ekejiuba shared some moments about his time with Cooper and recollections about the missing Raider:

“Well, [if anyone has said], ‘he wasn’t a Raider that long’, man, but he was a Raider long enough. I came into work one day and I saw Cooper on the depth chart and this was after Jarrod Cooper had retired. And I was like, did they sign him back without letting anybody know? And I come in, and this guy was sitting there and he was like, ‘Hi I’m Marquis Cooper.’ Quiet guy, quiet type. And it was a short period of time but he gelled quickly. And there was nobody that talked to him, a player or coach, that didn’t like Marquis. He was that type of guy. There is a lot of times I played on the kickoff returns where we played the center, right there in the middle and we always talked right before the team kicked the ball off on how things were going. Sometimes you are just so nervous, you don’t even talk about football. Talk about little things. I mean, he was just a great guy. He was such a great family guy. That is what he was about. He loved his wife [Rebekah] and his daughter [Delaney].

We used to go over to Sam Williams’ house and he showed us pictures of his wife and daughter. And he was just real proud. There was an air about him when he spoke about his family. And you appreciate that and a lot of guys that age don’t have their life together. But he had everything together.

He was a great friend. He will definitely be missed. His family misses him. I miss him personally. We became real cool.”

SBReport thanks Isaiah for a great interview and the opportunity to get to know him better, gain insight regarding his football career and thoughts about the Raiders, their fans and recent happenings in his professional and personal life.

Contact Author: Victor Cotto – SB Report Columnist

There is more than meets the eye when you see Isaiah Ekejiuba. The Oakland Raiders’ special team standout is a football player that is well rounded, diverse, has an understanding of life on and off the field and that has accomplished much in his lifetime.

In my conversation with the 6’4” 240 pound Nigerian born linebacker, I gained an understanding of how important his early life was as he made his travels through varying continents because of his late mother’s job with the United Nations and eventual landing at Colgate University where she taught.

How was it growing up; having a distinct up bringing, being born in Nigeria, living in different continents and eventually settling in the United States?

“That was a big influence, living in different places, because you learn a lot of different things in terms of dealing and appreciating other people for their beliefs and their culture. And I think that translates, when you work and go out here and play football you play with people that you do not necessarily interact with prior to football. Now you are working together and lone and behold you are best friends.”

Ekejiuba continued, “That helped me a lot, that transition to learn and appreciate people for their beliefs and their thinking; looking things outside the box and it helps in football meeting a lot of new people.”

His mother Felicia was very influential in his life. Ekejiuba proclaimed this and explained how she succeeded in presenting him a dynamic environment for him to develop in.

At a young age she tried to get me interested in a lot of things. Not just video games or books, it was a balance of things. You read a little, you travel a little and you learn to do all those things – you are just not one-dimensional. And I think that was instrumental in my growing. Through her teachings it helped with one; my work ethic, which she believed before sports, that you do all your schoolwork. That work ethic helped me believe that there was nothing I couldn’t do. And she made me believe that.

That ethic had him hitting the books in college at Virginia before he started playing football. In college is where he got his first taste of the football field as a mean to take his mind off some of the studies he was focused on – a path that would take him to unexpected heights in his life.

I was doing electrical engineering and it always seemed like I was always doing schoolwork. I needed a little bit of a distraction. And at the time, I knew a guy on the football team and he was talking about the team and how much fun they had.

It was something different to do; something outside of school. I didn’t think I would come this far. It was something that I wanted to do at the time and I have just been blessed to be at this point in my career.

After college, Ekejiuba went un-drafted. He may have not seen himself being one of the better special teams players in the NFL at that point of his life, but he also didn’t put his eggs in one basket and depended on his NFL career as a lone way of making it in this world.

I honestly didn’t see myself where I am right now. When the draft was coming up, I was a little nervous and I had just worked out for a couple of scouts on our college pro-day. I knew I was not going to be a guy that was going to get drafted because I didn’t have that much film. But there were a couple of scouts that had talked to me and said, ‘well listen, you did pretty good, we may take a look at you’, but it was just people talking and I didn’t believe anything.

Log on to SBReport.net in the coming days for part two of the exclusive interview with Isaiah Ekejiuba, where he talks about his arrival in Oakland, his views about being a solid player on special teams, his dream scenario on a kickoff, his thoughts on Johnnie Lee Higgins’ breakout campaign, first-year coordinator John Fassel, Tom Cable’s hiring, Raider fans, his three-year contract and negotiations with the Silver & Black and his teammate Marquis Cooper.

Contact Author: Victor Cotto – SB Report Columnist

In an exclusive interview with SBReport.net, Oakland Raiders’ special team ace Isaiah Ekejiuba talked about his missing teammate Marquis Cooper.

On Thursday, I had the opportunity to ask Ekejiuba about his relationship with Cooper and what were some recollections of his mate.

“Quiet guy, quiet type. And it was a short period of time but he gelled quickly. And there was nobody that talked to him, a player or coach, that didn’t like Marquis. He was that type of guy,” stated Ekejiuba.

Just recently, Cooper’s wife, Rebekah, filed a petition for a presumptive death certificate in civil court a week after the Coast Guard called off its search for the missing boater and two friends.

Cooper departed from Clearwater Pass in a 21-foot boat with free-agent defensive lineman Corey Smith and two former University of South Florida football players on Feb. 28.

Their boat overturned after encountering rough waters in the Gulf of Mexico and since, only Nick Schuyler was found clinging to the boat days later while the other men have not been located.

The Raiders on March 3^rd released a statement stating:

We continue to hold out hope that Marquis Cooper, Will Bleakley and Corey Smith will be located and rescued.

However, with the Coast Guard’s decision to cease search and rescue efforts, we are faced with the reality that this mission may not turn out the way that we all desire.

Again, the Raiders would like to express our deep appreciation to all involved in the search and rescue efforts.

We also wish to express gratitude to everyone around the world who has offered their support. We ask everyone to continue to remember these men and their families in their thoughts and prayers.

Ekejiuba fondly remembered during our conversation Cooper’s disposition stating, “We used to go over to Sam Williams’ house and he showed us pictures of his wife and daughter. And he was just real proud. There was an air about him when he spoke about his family. And you appreciate that and a lot of guys that age don’t have their life together. But he had everything together.”

He continued, “He was a great friend. He will definitely be missed. His family misses him. I miss him personally. We became real cool.”

Everyone at SBReport.net will continue to keep the families of those suffering in our thoughts and prayers. We will continue to keep these men in our hearts and hope that the families get through this situation, remembering the good times and precious moments they shared.

Contact Author: Victor Cotto – SB Report Columnist