FWIW: There are a couple of differences in what happens close to shore swimming. Three basics - undertow, rip current and rip tide. What most people commonly refer to as 'riptide' is actually rip current. Undertow is just what happens close to shore. If you get caught in undertow when you're trying to get on ground, you really just need to stay calm until the next 2 or 3 waves roll you onto solid footing again. Most people that have been in rough surf have experienced this. You fell yourself get knocked off your feet and moved around a while, but the waves just roll you back up on shore and you feel relieved.
The changing underwater topography of sand near shore, creates rip current. you'll get areas where changing and slowly moving underwater 'inlet' forms along beaches, or may exist due to some kind of underwater rocky formation, and the waves and tide moving, will create a fast moving jet of water that sucks a lot of sand with it. If you've ever stood at the edge of the water and let the waves bury your feet, think of that. Just large scale. The water moving out between your legs after a wave crashes and the sand moving around as you sink in. THis is what most people refer to as "riptide", but it's really rip current. If you get caught in one, it will suck you out to water that's overhead but not usually deeper than 10-20 feet at very most and depending on the underwater topography it could be very close to the shore or can carry you out 100 yards or possible a little more. Remain calm, and you can try to swim parallel to shore, but you may find yourself pretty far away from where you want to be, once the current lets up. Best path is diagonal back into shore if you are a strong swimmer, and if not, just tread water and wait, and hopefully you weren't dumb enough to swim alone.
Actual rip tides are things that if you are swimming in, you are probably swimming in the middle of some sort of boating channel, and that's just dumb if it's recreation. Rip tides happen at either natural or man-made inlets that extend above the surface of the water, and involve huge volumes water, and if you're caught in one, you are going for a ride in the water that will probably take you a few hundred yards up to a thousand yards out, if not farther, so keep your head up and tread. IF you have a vest on, you're basically riding a grade 1 or 2 rapid without the canoe or kayak to ride in, so enjoy the ride. If you have fins on, you have a chance of swimming out of it before it decides to let you out of it. If you don't have either, tread water, keep your head up and wait.
As for the Syracuse fullback, like I said before, lucky it was South Florida waters.
