In the back of the sports section of USA Today — aka the nation’s newspaper — were salaries of National Football League players grouped by teams.

So I read through the small type because I was curious. Which former Kansas University football player, I wondered, was making the most money in the play-for-pay world?

The search didn’t take long. Only 10 former Jayhawks — this year’s signees like Adrian Jones, Bill Whittemore and Curtis Ansel aren’t included — were listed among the hundreds of names.

Gilbert Brown is the answer.

The massive nose tackle of the Green Bay Packers — one of the first 350-pounders to perform in the NFL — earns $1,055,000 a year, according to USA Today, which compiled its numbers from various sources using a combination of salary and bonuses.

However, Brown was released by the Packers in March, and at the age of 33 he probably is ready to end his NFL career.

If Brown is through, then safety Kwamie Lassiter will move up to No. 1 on the list of highest-paid former Jayhawks toiling in the NFL. Lassiter’s pay last season was listed at $950,200.

However, Lassiter, who spent most of his career with the Arizona Cardinals, tore a knee ligament last November while in his first season with the San Diego Chargers, and since he’s 34, a comeback hardly can be termed a certainty.

If Lassiter does have to check it in, Gerald McBurrows will win a tight race with Dana Stubblefield for top-money honors. McBurrows, a reserve defensive back for the Atlanta Falcons, earns $757,400 a year, and Stubblefield, a situational defensive lineman with the Oakland Raiders, is just a grand behind at $756,400.

Both McBurrows and Stubblefield are well past their primes as is the next player on the list — Don Davis, a journeyman special teams player for the NFL champion New England Patriots. Davis, listed as a linebacker, makes $682,000.

Of the other five Jayhawks on the USA Today salary charts, only one is a starter. In fact, Justin Hartwig is one of those rare cases — a lightly regarded college player who has blossomed as a pro.

An offensive tackle at KU, Hartwig was the Tennessee Titans’ sixth-round draft choice in the 2002 draft. The West Des Moines, Iowa, product played in only three games during the ’02 season, mostly on special teams, but became the Titans’ starting center last season.

Hartwig was thrown into a position he had never played before and wound up starting all 16 regular-season games and the club’s two playoff contests. Moreover, the 6-foot-4, 305-pounder didn’t miss a single snap, in games or in practice.

In Hartwig’s first NFL start against Oakland, he was whistled four times — three for holding and one for tripping — but the Titans stuck with him and Hartwig may have been one of the league’s best bargains at $304,900 a year.

Hartwig is one of only two former Jayhawks who play on an offensive platoon in the NFL. The other is Moran Norris, a part-time starter at fullback for the Houston Texans. Like most NFL fullbacks, Norris didn’t carry the ball once in 2003, but he did have seven receptions.

Anyway, Norris is earning $393,800 while playing in nearly as much obscurity as an offensive linemen.

Also playing limited NFL roles are Andrew Davison, Ron Warner and Sean McDermott.

Warner, a defensive end now with the Washington Redskins, has kicked around with several teams, as has McDermott, a deep snapper now on the Patriots’ roster. Both have salaries, according to USA Today, of $375,000.

Davison, a special teams player and reserve defensive back with the Dallas Cowboys, is the lowest-paid former Jayhawk at $300,000 a year.

Still, it’s a cinch there isn’t a single former Kansas University student who wouldn’t mind being categorized as the lowest-paid anything at 300 grand a year.