Hello from Gainesville, Fla.

I'll explain being here in a little bit, but first, some good news to pass along: The Patriots will be traveling to Detroit to play the Lions on Thanksgiving Day. Most of my colleagues, I'm sure, aren't too happy about this one. I, on the other hand, couldn't be happier. This one really works out for me.

How do we have this nailed down? Well, as Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio pointed out, Gary Myers's report that the Jets will host a game on Thanksgiving night takes New York out of the running for the game in Detroit. The Lions get an AFC opponent in the rotation this year, and their two home inter-conference opponents are the Jets and Patriots. So it has to be New England.

Maybe Jim Schwartz will have his old boss Bill over for dinner afterwards.

I did mention that the Patriots could also be the Jets' home opener for the third straight year, this time as part of the opening of the New Meadowlands, but Florio predicted in the above link that it'll be Jets-Dolphins. So we'll see on that one.