After years (actually, decades) of virtually unquestioned authority over the NFL Players Association, long-time Executive Director Gene Upshaw faces the first real threat to his position.

According to Chris Mortensen of ESPN, Ravens kicker Matt Stover outlined in a Monday e-mail to other team player reps a plan for having a new leader in place by March 2009. 

In the message, Stover mentioned a Friday conference call involving several player reps.  “I was on that conference call and I am not the only rep who listened and felt that it is time for a change,” Stover wrote.

The full text of the Stover e-mail is right here.

The effort possibly is in response to recent comments from Upshaw in which he stridently declared an intention to ignore the union’s mandatory retirement rule until the right person is found to replace him, while also refusing to hire a second-in-command who could be groomed to do just that.

“There is only one No. 1 and there will not be a No. 2,” Upshaw told SportsBusiness Journal for its March 31 issue.  “Number 2 is always trying to become No. 1 and never wants to wait.  They can always do it better.  They are like backup [quarterbacks].  There is a reason they are backups.”

Upshaw was characteristically defiant in response to the Stover e-mail.  “Matt Stover has no clue,” Upshaw told Mort.  “Whoever is pulling his chain is doing a disservice to the union.  I could understand the idea that they need to get rid of me if I wasn’t doing a good job but, shoot, the owners are mad because they think I’ve done too good of a job.”

The problem is that it really is a bad time for the players to finally (how do I put this delicately?)  grow a pair.  The union has been doing things for years that, in our opinion, aren’t in the best interests of the players at large.  But yet no one has ever done anything about it.  Now, with the owners chugging toward an early scuttling of the current labor contract and serious negotiations needed in order to get an extension in place before the teams have to suffer the headaches of the last year with a salary cap in place, there isn’t enough time to make a change and get an extension in place before partial hell begins to break loose when the 2009 league year launches.

Then again, having a new Executive Director in position by March 2009 would give the new guy two years to work something out before all-out Armageddon arrives with the expiration of the CBA.

To be fair, Upshaw has done a great job in getting the players the biggest possible piece of the pie.  But he has been involved in plenty of controversial issues, many of which haven’t previously stuck to him.

For starters, he gets paid way too much money for what he does.  The players could find a highly capable and motivated Executive Director who would do the job for far less money than what Upshaw receives.  In other words, Upshaw’s compensation doesn’t reflect the forces of the open market. 

Also, he is too emotional and abrasive when challenged.  Saying that Matt Stover “has no clue” isn’t the mark of a man who is capable of controlling his feelings and making objective and reasoned judgments.  Last year, Upshaw said that he would “break [the] damn neck” of Hall of Fame lineman Joe DeLamielleure regarding the still-smoldering issue of benefits for retired players.

This isn’t the first time a player has complained about Upshaw.  Two years ago, Vikings center Matt Birk called Upshaw a piece of something other than pizza.  “Too many guys in the league just accept whatever Gene says,” Birk said at the time.  “I don’t know why no one has called this guy out.”

Birk did, and now Stover is spearheading an effort to transform the effort into something more than periodic words.

But Stover might want to be careful.  It’s a lot easier to break the neck of a kicker.