The fact that Titans center Kevin Mawae is willing to speak out against supersized rookie contracts, such as quarterback Matt Ryan’s six-year, $72 million deal with the Falcons, is significant because not many veteran players have gone on the record with such beliefs.

The fact that Mawae is now the president of the NFLPA makes the comments a bombshell.

Mawae shared his views with ESPN Radio’s Colin Cowherd on Wednesday.

“As a guy who has been in the league for 14 now going on 15 years and being around other veteran guys, for a young guy to get paid that kind of money and never steps foot on an NFL football field, it’s a little disheartening to think of,” Mawae said.  “It makes it tough for a guy who’s proven himself to say ‘I want that kind of money’ when the owners, all they’re going to say is, ‘Well, you weren’t a first-round pick.’

“And I know there is sentiment around the league amongst the players like, ‘Let’s do something to control these salaries and control these signing bonuses’ and things like that, and I know that’s something that the owners are talking about and I’m sure that’s going to play in to this round of negotiations for this collective bargaining agreement.”

Mawae had better tread carefully, or Gene Upshaw will break his neck.  After all, Upshaw has insisted that the union will “never agree” to a rookie salary formula, offering up a series of nonsensical arguments based on specious logic.

Suddenly, Upshaw’s position is crumbling from within.  And now that the president of the union has said his peace, we expect more players to follow suit.  If Upshaw continues to resist, he’ll only be proving to his constituents that he’s completely out of touch with their desires.

As we’ve previously explained, there’s no reason for any player currently in the league to not want to reel in the amounts paid to the first ten or so players drafted each year.  Even for the guys who previously received such a windfall, every dollar not paid to an unproven rookie is a dollar that’s available to pay to an established player.

Heck, even Matt Ryan would now vote to curb the practice, since he’s already gotten his huge pile of money for nothing.