Tampa- Rescuers called off the search Tuesday for two pro football players and a third fishing buddy whose boat capsized off Florida’s Gulf Coast over the weekend.

The Coast Guard planned to scrap the rescue mission for the men at sunset, more than 60 hours after a wave flipped their fishing boat in chilly waters off Tampa.

“They aren’t too optimistic based on the time they were in the water,” said Bruce Cooper, whose son, Marquis, was among the missing.

The heartbreaking announcement came just a day after rescuers found a fourth man clinging atop the crippled boat.

Nick Schuyler, 24, a former college gridder, was recovering in a Tampa hospital after surviving more than 36 hours at sea.

Still missing are Marquis Cooper, an Oakland Raiders linebacker, free-agent defensive lineman Corey Smith and former South Florida player William Bleakley.

Schuyler told officials all his fishing buddies managed to put on life jackets after a wave flipped their boat about 35 miles offshore.

None of the four men had life jackets on when the wave sent them plunging into the 62-degree water, but were able to retrieve them from the crippled boat.

“(They) immediately swam under the boat, recovered life jackets and managed to put them on,” Coast Guard Capt. Timothy Close said.

Schuyler told his dad that all four men were holding onto the floating boat for several hours after the initial accident.

“They were all clinging together, helping each other the whole time,” Stu Schuyler told CNN.

At some point, the three others drifted away. Rescuers plucked Nick Schuyler off the boat around noon Monday.

“It’s hard to keep track of time out there — he was in the water roughly 40 hours,” the dad said.

“He said that four or five hours he was alone, so they drifted apart while it was still dark. They couldn’t see each other.”

Cooper’s father, Bruce, said the wait was agonizing.

“It’s gut wrenching,” said Bruce Cooper, a Phoenix sportscaster. “It’s absolutely terrible.”

The Coast Guard first said it was continuing the search in part because the victims’ good physical condition might have allowed them to survive.

Survival experts said it was virtually impossible for them to live for so long in the water.