NFL

Bold, brash Jets are New York’s team

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Once again, the New York Jets carry the banner for New York City. A tough team, and a tough-talking team, with a tough-talking coach, that embraces representing a tough town.

For however long this exhilarating ride lasts — and the Jets view Indianapolis tomorrow night as a stopover on the Road to Dallas — this is Jets Town, another chance for the franchise that hasn’t won anything in 42 years to rise up out of the shadows and light up the Empire State Building in green and white. While the Giants Wait ’Til Next Year.

“We like that. … We want to be New York’s team,” Dustin Keller said.

“And obviously, with them [the Giants] just not making the playoffs right now, I think we have a slight edge just still being in the playoffs. But I think in order to actually be New York’s team, we have to go out and do what we said we’re gonna do and win a Super Bowl.”

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Said Darrelle Revis, “When the New York Giants won the Super Bowl a couple of years ago, we didn’t make the playoffs, and they were carrying the banner for New York City, so right now we’re in this situation and it’s our time to do that, to try to hold the banner for New York City and Jersey as well to try to get to the Super Bowl.”

And James Ihedigbo added, “Hey, what the Giants do, that’s on them. We knew from Day 1 we’re New York’s team. We knew that, and we took on that persona, and that’s how it’s been.

“You kinda wish them to do well, but the fact that they haven’t, that’s on them. Our focus is completely on this game, and completely on winning the Super Bowl. … We just knew that our goal is to win a Super Bowl, and we’re gonna conquer that this season.”

Damien Woody: “All eyes will be on us, and we obviously understand that everybody has their loyalties and stuff like that here in this town. But we feel like we got the spotlight, which is good. Now we want to do something with it, and hopefully we can be the New York team to bring home a championship this year.”

The Willis Reed-Clyde Frazier Knicks were poetry in motion, The Team of Teams. The ’69 Miracle Mets defied the odds. Rex Ryan and the Jets would be a combination of the George Steinbrenner-Billy Martin-Reggie Jackson Bronx Zoo and the rowdy, arrogant ’86 Mets.

“We’re a physical football team — we’re in your face, we’re brash — I think New Yorkers are the same way,” Woody said.

“New Yorkers are big talkers,” Keller said. “That’s no question, you’re gonna find some big talkers in this city. And not only do they talk the talk, but more times than not, you’re gonna find ’em able to walk the walk, and I think that’s what we’re doing right now. Obviously we still have a little ways to go. It starts with the Colts, but … we’re more than capable of backing it up.”

If you are a shrinking violet, or ultrasensitive or insecure, you cannot play here. Richard Todd once flipped Jets fans the bird. Neil O’Donnell would have been better off staying in Pittsburgh. New York wiped the smile right off Bobby Bonilla’s face.

“It’s the media capital of the world … flashing lights … everything happens in New York, so you kinda embrace that,” Ihedigbo said. “That’s who we are as a New York team. Everything you do is bigger in New York.”

The bigger the stars are, the harder they fall. The champions get back up.

“Seizing the opportunity — that’s New York itself, that’s what it’s built on, is being able to seize the opportunity that’s given to you and make the best of it,” Ihedigbo said. “And that’s the New York Jets. … People counting you out, you defeat all odds and come out No. 1 —that is New York.”

New Yorkers may be gruff and haughty, but they have proved they will unite in times of crisis.

“The guys in the locker room care about each other,” Nick Mangold said. “You see that in New York all the time when something happens. Everyone gets behind each other. I think the same goes for the team.

“We’re out here to be the best. When you’re in New York, that’s your goal. Your goal is to be the best, and the only way you survive in New York is by working to be the best, and I think that’s what we’re doing as well.”

Peyton Manning won’t scare New York’s team.

steve.serby@nypost.com