Sam Darnold is uniting a Jets fan base that knows he’s its next big hope

“J-E-T-S, Jets! Jets! Jets!”

I could hear it from the parking lot. It was my first NFL game as a bill-paying, gainfully employed adult, and there was no better way to break myself in than to pull up to a Jets vs. Giants preseason game — the only time my two hometown teams will play each other this year.

My Jets fandom basically died a horrible death when Mark Sanchez butt-fumbled his career away back in 2012. The same quarterback who guided us to the deepest playoff runs in my lifetime also found a way to slip and fall head-first into his offensive lineman’s ass cheeks. We haven’t been to the playoffs since. What a time.

But a friend had free tickets to this game, and I rarely turn down free anything. And even though I registered as a diehard Peyton Manning and Colts fan growing up, I always had hometown allegiance to the gang in green.

On Friday, I learned I wasn’t the only one.

It started with a few murmurs. Then people were pointing at the Jumbotron. Before I knew it, my hands were up in the air, too. No. 14 was walking onto the field for the first drive of the game. As someone who rarely watches football these days, even I know who this guy is.

This guy’s the quarterback out of USC who the Jets picked third overall in this year’s NFL Draft — the one they chose over a few other talented, available QBs. This guy’s the one the Giants passed on at pick No. 2, drafting running back Saquon Barkley instead to create a fun mini-rivalry over what could have been. This guy’s the one that Josh Norman — who talks shit about everyone — gleefully praised as “not making mistakes” after a New York-Washington joint practice over the summer.

And this is supposed to be the player who represents the kind of stability at quarterback that the Jets haven’t had in ages.

Of course I know who Sam Darnold is. He’s basically our only hope.

So I threw my hands up and cheered for him, too.

By this point, I’m scanning my ticket and walking through security at MetLife Stadium. Darnold might as well be a baby goat grazing in the pasture. If the Jets are going to have any chance at clawing up from the depths of the NFL cellar, it starts and ends with him.

Giants fans are collectively rolling their eyes. They’re snobbily brandishing their Super Bowl rings, head-to-head wins, and pointing at Eli Manning and Odell Beckham Jr. as bigger names than anyone the Jets have had this century. All this negative energy is sucking the life out of the air. But I find another guy in green, one equally excited for our quarterback of the future.

“That’s our guy,” I say to him. He high-fives me. Say less.

Saying less is probably a good idea when it’s just the first quarter of any game. Now the game is tied at 7. Some Giants guy named Hunter Sharp just juked the life out of a Jets special team defender, stiff-armed another into the turf and took a punt 55 yards to the house.

On the first play of their next possession, Manning completes a 54-yard bomb to Cody Latimer. Things were going so well. Is this the depressing life, I think, of a Jets fan with expectations?

But on the next play, Giants running back Jonathan Stewart fumbles on the 6-yard line. The ball just ploops out, and the big fella Leonard Williams scoops it up and jets up the field. Darnold goes 4-of-4 on this drive and finds Terrelle Pryor for a 12-yard touchdown. Of course we miss the point after, but who cares? We’ve got more points on the board, and our offense looks fluid as hell.

Jets fans are jumping out their seats. Giants fans are still a little ticked off at their running back. Had Barkley or Beckham been playing, that play probably doesn’t happen. But they aren’t, and the Giants are much less exciting without that blond-haired, newly paid playmaker on the field.

Darnold has a whole lot of zip in his arm. He fit passes over a defender’s outstretched arms and into crevices I didn’t know existed. His receivers are dropping passes that hit them in the hands or on the numbers. “Just wait until we get him some help,” I think to myself.

He isn’t scared to leave the pocket, either. The man’s actually faster than I expected. His only mistake was throwing a low pass that was tipped and nearly picked off by a Giants defensive lineman. I don’t know football schematics or if he’s making the right reads, but things are happening with this guy on the field. It’s just a preseason game, but there’s an energy about him and that fans pour into him: It’s palpable.

This is a guy we can rally around.

Maybe football is fun again? Probably a little bit more if the Jets had won. That’s the state of the Jets fan base as I saw it. Our team is still frustrating to watch. The 13 penalties felt more like 50, and it doesn’t take a football expert to know we need a playmaker in the backfield and/or at wide receiver. But our defense forced turnovers and we’ve got some promising players like Darron Lee and Robby Anderson sprinkled across the roster.

And in a suffocating sea of blue-painted faces, no one player brought Gang Green Nation together like No. 14.

He’s our next big hope. For some people, he’s the last hope. For me? Well, Darnold’s a reason to renew my membership at the Jets club. The last time I paid attention to this team, Brandon Marshall was out here looking like Megatron, and the Jets missed the playoffs despite a 10-6 record. Then in typical New York fashion, things fell apart right after, and we’ve been 5-11 ever since.

I knew I wanted to be a more active Jets fan this season. This isn’t a playoff team; not by a long shot. But it looks like they’re building something from the ground up. And with Darnold at the helm, the picture is clear: He’s the piece to build around.

So I high-fived everyone, talked shit right back to Giants fans, cheered my Jets on and felt the ensuing heartache when time ran out in the fourth quarter with a final score of Giants 22, Jets 16. It might only be preseason, but it’s called preseason for a reason.

It gives fans something to look forward to. For Jets fans, that something is Darnold. For new (or renewed) fans like me, though, it’s a team to call my own again — for better or worse.