FOXBORO — Matt Light had no problem with fans booing Patriots players when they knelt during the national anthem yesterday.

The former Patriots left tackle who was Tom Brady’s blindside protector on three Super Bowl championship teams said he walked away from the game “ashamed” after 16 Pats players took a knee.

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

The anthem kneeling “would have never happened during my time,” Light said. “As a guy that’s been there and helped set up the Patriot Way so they can walk in there and do what they do, it’s beyond disheartening. It’s the first time I’ve ever been ashamed to be a Patriot. And I promise you I’m not the only one.”

No one on the Texans appeared to kneel, and given how tightly Bill Belichick has always run his ship, Light said he was surprised this would happen on his watch.

“Nobody can force anybody to do anything in a situation like that. If he chooses to do it he’s going to do it,” Light said. “But I’m going to tell you this much, with the amount of preparation and attention to detail and all the things that happen in that organization, I’m really surprised that it wasn’t dealt with so it didn’t get to that point.”

Light said of the protest, “We’ve never been those people. On the door going out it says ‘ignore the noise.’ It says ‘ignore the hype.’ It says ‘manage expectations.’ And it also says ‘speak for yourself.’ If that is not the Patriot Way anymore, then I am very disheartened and very upset. I’m also not saying that I’ll never be a Patriots fan. What I’m saying is I’m very ashamed.”

Light said he sat with a 91-year old veteran and the wife of a slain SEAL Team 6 member who was at her first NFL game.

“His wife had to sit at her first NFL game and watch what these men chose to do. Her husband died, gave his life up so that they could do that,” Light said. “That’s the reality that these so-called men don’t understand. Is it about their cause or is it about them? If it was about their cause, I could come up with a million different ways for them to really truly change things. If it’s about them, well … you see what happens. The collateral damage is widespread.

“They obviously didn’t think about anybody other than themselves.”