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A 1994 law passed by Congress, called the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, allows supplement makers to avoid regulation. The FDA ruled in 1983 that all conventional products with a combination of ephedrine and caffeine in them were to be taken off the market.

The 1994 act allows them under the guise that they are a dietary supplement.

"The natural products are more potent than the synthetic combination," Gurley said.

The lack of regulation enhances the danger.

Zach Thomas said Ultimate Orange nearly caused him to hyperventilate before a game even started.(AP)

Each Ripped Fuel pill is said to have 10 milligrams of ephedra and 100 of caffeine. But critics say those dosages are inadequately monitored, even though not adhering to those levels would violate some state and federal laws.

The Ephedra Education Council has set the recommended dosage (two pills) at 25 milligrams. In 1997, the FDA tried to limit the dosage to 7 but was shot down.

Gurley said he has tested the ephedra in different Ripped Fuel pills, coming up with variances between batches or even within the same bottle.

"We found the difference in the ephedrine content as much as 250 percent from various lots of Ripped Fuel," Gurley said.

The risk is that a player might get different reactions from bottle to bottle, or even pill to pill.

The New England Journal of Medicine reviewed 140 reports of adverse events related to the use of dietary supplements containing ephedra alkaloids that were submitted to the FDA from June 1, 1997, to March 31, 1999. Thirty-one percent were deemed to be definitely or probably related to the use of supplements containing ephedra; another 31 percent were deemed possibly related.

Of those 140 cases, 47 percent of the adverse effects that were definitely, probably or possibly related to the use of supplements containing ephedra alkaloids included cardiovascular symptoms.

The article concluded that the use of supplements containing ephedra alkaloids might pose a health risk to some. Among the problems caused are increased blood pressure and body temperature, which can lead to heatstroke.

Both Butler and McCardell say their temperatures rose to uncomfortable levels when they took Ripped Fuel.

"It raises your temperature to 101 or something like that," Butler said. "It's not a good feeling."

Said McCardell: "You want things that get you going, but not that much. It didn't feel right."

Gurley said the rise in body temperature comes because the ephedra/caffeine combination in Ripped Fuel constricts blood vessels, preventing heat from leaving the body. That can lead to hyperthermia, which can lead to the muscles shutting down. The effect has been seen when testing ephedrine supplements on animals.

"It is not a pretty thing," Gurley said.

Ephedra can also lead to long-term problems, both mental and physical. Gurley said there are studies that show that a person, even after stopping use, could have cardiovascular and central nervous trouble later on in life.

"The two organs it affects are the brain and the heart," Gurley said.

Thomas knows firsthand how it affects the mind. He took Ultimate Orange last season, before the company's makers took it off the market, to get a little boost. He took it just before a game, never considering the possible effects it would have on his body.

"I went running out for introductions and I was so wired up I had to go right to the sidelines," Thomas said. "I was hyperventilating. I was having trouble breathing. It put me in a daze. You take stuff like that, it can mess with your head. You might be all wired up to play, but you forget your assignments."

Despite the problems that day, problems that didn't keep him out of the game, Thomas amazingly gave serious thought to taking it again the next week.

"I remember saying, 'I'll never do that again,'" Thomas said. "Then the next week I was feeling down. I was wanting it. But I didn't take it."

He says he hasn't taken it since, and won't.

Others will. Until the league steps in and bans ephedra, players say it's going to be found in NFL locker rooms in one form of another. That boost is something some crave, despite the risks that go with it.

"Everyone wants that edge," Thomas said. "The majority of the players who need that edge to stay in the league will do it."

"It's not going away," Butler said. "Until the league steps in and tests for it, guys will take it. You take it before games and it gets people jacked up. That's something that guys want."

If testing doesn't stop it, a death might. If it is proved Wheeler did die in part from taking a supplement with ephedra, players say that could have a huge impact. Gurley said that might be the only way to get out a message that he has been trying to send out for over 10 years.

"I told my wife that it's going to take a death of a star athlete or a Hollywood celebrity or a politician or a politician's family member for people to wake up to this," Gurley said. "Until then, it's not going to stop. As long as people perceive this as something that helps them, it's going to continue."

Especially in the NFL.

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