"The march to the end of the lockout could be held up, at least temporarily.

Patriots guard Logan Mankins and San Diego Chargers receiver Vincent Jackson are asking to be made unrestricted free agents or be given $10 million to settle as lead plaintiffs of the Brady v. NFL case, an NFL source confirmed. Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports first reported the development.

Both players are in their seventh year and had the franchise tag placed on them by their teams. We discussed the potential for a demand like this in today's paper."