UPDATE 12:48 pm
Blaine Gabbert hasn't taken too many snaps as Tom Brady's backup, but he may have had his best moment in Tampa Bay on Thursday, when he and his brothers helped rescue four people whose helicopter crashed into the water off Peter O. Knight Airport on Davis Islands.
"I was just in the right place at the right time," Gabbert said, as he recounted the rescue. In a mid-afternoon news conference from One Buccaneer Place, Gabbert said he and his brothers were on jet skis, and wanted to go "poke around," when he heard a "faint" noise, looked to the west, and saw two yellow life jackets in the water.
Gabbert helped two of the passengers on to his jet ski, told them to hang on, and got them to the beach, as the Tampa Marine Patrol assisted the pilot.
Gabbert described himself as a low-key guy who wanted to stay under the radar, and although he said he didn't immediately give his name, he said he got a phone call moments later from Bucs' GM Jason Licht, who asked if he'd just rescued some people from the water.
Acting Police Chief Lee Bercaw then made Gabbert an honorary member of the Tampa Water Patrol.
Watch video of the rescue below.
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We're expecting more information this afternoon about the rescue of four people after a helicopter crash offshore of Tampa's Peter O. Knight Airport on Davis Islands.
And it now appears one of the people involved in that rescue was Bucs' backup QB Blaine Gabbert.
Hunter Hupp and his parents, visiting from Philadelphia, were near the end of an hour-long tour when they heard a bang and the chopper fell into the water. He tells News Channel 8 he almost didn't make it. "We were trapped under so much stuff," Hupp said. "I had so many cables and wires and headsets and seatbelts all around me, and I thought of my parents, floating on top, and what they would go through for the rest of their lives. So I did my best, and I'm here. And I hope this is reality, because it still doesn't feel like it."
Gabbert and another jet skier in the area helped with the rescue, and the Tampa Police Department's Marine Unit brought everyone back to shore.
Interim Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw, Tampa Police Marine Patrol Officers, Major David Arthur from the HCSO, and Blaine Gabbert will be on hand for a news conference at One Buccaneer Place this afternoon.
photo: Getty Images