Former Dolphins player recounts 16-hour survival swim

After he found himself stranded in the ocean, former Miami Dolphins fullback Rob Konrad harnessed the mojo of his former team's mascot in order to stay alive.

Konrad fell off his fishing boat off the Florida Coast and swam nine miles to save his life. He spent 16 hours in the Atlantic, but found the strength to swim back to shore, reports CBS News correspondent Vinita Nair.

"After some time I said, 'Look, I'm not dying tonight and I'm going to make it to shore," Konrad said at a press conference.

Sitting next to his wife Tammy, an emotional Konrad described for the first time his 16-hour ordeal in the Atlantic Ocean.

Last Wednesday afternoon, Konrad said he fell off his fishing boat nearly 9 miles off the coast of South Florida.

"I shouldn't be here," he said.

Konrad was taking his boat to a service station 30 miles north of Boca Raton for routine maintenance.

He started to fish along the way and was knocked overboard by a wave. The boat, on auto-pilot, headed east toward the Bahamas.

"After panicking for a minute, I realized I was in some real trouble," Konrad said.

The next 16 hours tested his physical and mental toughness.

Konrad learned a thing or two about toughness during his six seasons as a fullback in the NFL, but it hadn't prepared him for a marathon swim in the Atlantic, or the sea life below threatening his chances of survival.

"Bit by jellyfish right when the sun was going down. I got circled by a shark, luckily, the one circled around and left," he said.

Konrad said there were two times he thought he might be rescued when a fishing boat came within 50 yards of him and when a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter passed right over him.

"They had their lights on me and kept going, they didn't see me and uh, that was a difficult time, I think I realized at that point in time I was on my own," Konrad said.

It almost broke him, but thoughts of his wife and their two children kept him going.

"I've got two, two beautiful daughters -- I was hitting that shore," Konrad said.