Rob Konrad Says a Shark Circled Him When He Was in the Water for 16 Hours

Rob Konrad, the former NFL player who somehow survived a 9-mile swim in the middle of the night last week after falling off a boat, finally broke his silence to the skeptical press today in South Florida.

And he stands by it all.

The former Miami Dolphins fullback says that while he was in the water for 16 hours, he saw rescue helicopters circling looking for him, but didn’t get depressed when they didn’t see him, but rather he “realized he was on his own.” In what sounds like the scene from a future movie, Konrad says he was stung by a jellyfish and was circled by at least one shark on the surface, and several below.

This was the saddest moment of the press conference:

Rob’s wife, Tammy Konrad, said she began to panic when her two daughters started to ask before going to bed, “Where’s daddy?"
— Jeff Darlington (@JeffDarlington) January 12, 2015

Konrad was no amateur fisherman – though how he fell in the water is still unclear – and he knew to follow the sun as it set. If this sounds like a scene from Open Water …

Konrad followed sun west during day then followed lights on the shore. “I have 2 beautiful daughters,” he says. “I was hitting that shore."
— Jeff Darlington (@JeffDarlington) January 12, 2015

Still skeptical? I’ve got more questions – how’d he fall in? What kind of swimming training did he have? Where is he getting the nine miles figure? Why’d he go fishing by himself? Why wasn’t he wearing a life vest? – that hopefully he’ll eventually answer. But I’m starting to believe.

I guess I’ll have to wait for the book/movie.