Port Adelaide player John McCarthy fell from a hotel on an end-of-season trip in Vegas. He died there.
Former West Coast Eagle Chad Fletcher stopped breathing after reportedly choking on vomit. He was revived there.
And ex-North Melbourne captain Wayne Carey was involved in a violent domestic incident. He was jailed there.
Las Vegas deserves its neon-lit reputation for nightlife and gambling. But Port chief executive Keith Thomas believes McCarthy and 10 of his team-mates were in Vegas for reasons other than booze and betting.
He believes the 11 Port players were using Vegas as a base for a week-long end-of-season trip in the United States.
"It was a holiday," Thomas said today. "We don't monitor holidays as such - we're not across all of their itinerary - but I'm sure that was actually happening, yes,"
Thomas doesn't know how McCarthy came to die at 5.40am on a Sunday in a Las Vegas hotel where the player wasn't staying.
It didn't happen at the hotel they were staying at, which we don't understand," Thomas said.
He didn't know why McCarthy and team-mates became separated or if McCarthy had been drinking alcohol.
"It's very difficult to know," he said.
What is known is McCarthy's death adds to a list of AFL player incidents in Las Vegas. During West Coast's 2006 end-of-season holiday in Vegas, Fletcher reportedly choked on his own vomit, stopped breathing, was rushed to hospital and revived.
Fletcher spent four days in a Vegas hospital before flying home.
And Carey, while holidaying there with his then-wife in 2004, was arrested for misdemeanour and held in custody for a night, but the local district attorney didn't pursue the case.
AP