Matt Light Says Protests Made Him 'Ashamed' To Be A Patriot

FOXBOROUGH, MA — Former New England Patriot Matt Light isn't happy with members of the team who knelt during the national anthem Sunday. The man who spent his career protecting Tom Brady's blindside told the Boston Herald that he was ashamed when he saw members of the team take a knee.

In response to comments by President Trump at a rally in Alabama Friday, where he called for players who kneeled during the national anthem to be fired, several NFL players, including about 17 Patriots, took a knee during the anthem in protest of the president's comments. Many of those who did not kneel stood and linked arms with their teammates.

Light, who said he is one of the founders of the "Patriot Way," would have preferred if the team had stood in unison and went along with business as usual.

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"If you think that it’s OK to take a knee during our national anthem and disrespect openly the national anthem, you are wrong. I don’t care if you have a ‘but what about’ or a ‘it’s because of’ — that doesn’t matter," Light told the Herald.

Light went on to say that such a gesture would never have happened during his tenure on the team.

"It’s the first time I’ve ever been ashamed to be a Patriot. And I promise you I’m not the only one," he said.

He went on to say that the team didn't think of anyone but themselves.

Former Patriot Troy Brown feels differently and said he was surprised that fans at Gillette Stadium booed those who went down to one knee.

"Maybe they don't understand this is in protest of what (Trump) said," Brown said on CSN. "I don't know where the fans are coming from on this. I thought they would stand behind those guys and be with those guys."

After Sunday's game, Devin McCourty said the display was not aimed at members of the armed services, but was a display of unity.

"We hate that people are going to see it as that we don’t respect the military and the men and women that are way braver than us that go and put their life on the line every day for us to have the right to play football, and we know people are going to see it that way. Guys have family members, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters that serve, and they were really conflicted about it. But we just wanted to send a message of unity and being together and not standing for the disrespect and different ways guys felt," McCourty said.

Image Credit: AP Photo/Steven Senne