Gostkowski

FOXBORO — Sunday’s fight between Patriots tackle Matt Light and Dolphins linebacker Channing Crowder is going to be reviewed by the league office to determine if disciplinary action is necessary, but Patriots kicker Stephen Gostkowski won’t be worth interviewing. Even though he was next to the fight, he was only concerned about one thing: making sure neither man crushed his kicking leg.

“Light landed on my leg, and I had no idea what was going on, I was just worried about someone falling on my leg,” Gostkowski said.

The fight began after a field goal late in the Patriots win over the Dolphins. Crowder appeared to shove Light, and then the Patriots tackle punched Crowder repeatedly.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the incident would be reviewed by NFL director of football operations Gene Washington this week, but that no decision would be made yesterday, according to the Associated Press. He said reviews are standard for such on-field incidents. Gostkowski, meanwhile, never thought about getting involved.

“That’s their fight, let them do what they want to do. Those guys are twice my size — I only pick fights that I know I can win,” the kicker laughed.

Reminded that sometimes in hockey, the two goalies square off during larger fights, Gostkowski — clearly joking — mulled the idea of facing off with the other team’s kicker.

“Yeah, I should have gone after their kicker — just ran over there and started punching him, yeah!” Gostkowski laughed.

Prime-time flameout

The Patriots-Seahawks game in Seattle on Dec. 7, originally scheduled as an NBC Sunday night game, has been moved back to 4:05 p.m. through the NFL flex scheduling process.

The NFL reserves the right to change the starting times of games over the last six weeks of the season. The Sunday night game on Dec. 7 will now be Washington at Baltimore.

No timeout for a turkey dinner

Around the country, families will sit down for turkey dinner Thursday for the annual Thanksgiving ritual. Football players don’t know anything about that. Thanks to the NFL scheduling, most haven’t had a Thanksgiving since college, or a Christmas, either.

“It’s my ninth year. I haven’t had a Thanksgiving or a Christmas, so I don’t really think about it,” said defensive back Lewis Sanders.

“I’ll probably eat Chinese food on Thanksgiving. I don’t have nowhere to go,” Sanders said, clearly opening himself up to an invite from legions of crazed fans.

Six teams will play games on Thanksgiving, and some of the rest will at least have the day off from practice. Sanders said that it takes some adjustment for the younger players, but on a veteran team like the Patriots, the short week shouldn’t affect game preparation.

“Maybe the young guys are like, ‘Oh my god, we have to work on Thanksgiving?’ But I’ve been around, and this team has been around, so we’re just going to prepare and go forward,” Sanders said.

Staying on the mark

With only 11 games played, Gostkowski has set his career high for touchbacks, his 16th of the season coming in the second quarter against Miami.

Gostkowski said it isn’t the result of some massive workout program for his legs, or coverage changes — just some good weather, some good kicks, some good luck, and strong Patriots kick coverage making returners reconsider trying to run that gauntlet. “During the beginning of the year, I’d kick a good kick, and they’d bring it out, and we’d stop them inside the 20. So now maybe they think twice before bringing it out,” Gostkowski said.

Gostkowski’s 16 touchbacks place him third in the league, a bragging point for a kicker who has been known for his accuracy, not his leg strength.

But Gostkowski said that he doesn’t think he’s kicking harder than last season — although he acknowledged that he has had a shorter memory about poor kicks.

“I know I’m kicking the ball higher, but I don’t know about farther,” Gostkowski said. “A lot of times, it’s about attitude, and how you attack the ball. I’m definitely trying to attack it with the attitude that I want to kick it far. Sometimes you go up there afraid to mishit one, and that’s not the attitude you want to have. I had a couple balls that I hit out of bounds last year, and that may have altered the way I approached it, but you don’t want to do that.”

Gostkowski is also having an accurate year kicking field goals, adding two Sunday to give him 26 made in 28 attempts on the season.

dbarbari@projo.com