NFL

Jets, staff ‘pushing’ the limits

It started innocently enough at Wednesday’s practice and now it’s on the verge of morphing into a fitness craze tinged with a fascinating show of mass solidarity.

Jets owner Woody Johnson, showing support for his head coach Rex Ryan in his quest to curb his team’s propensity for committing penalties (their 63 penalties for 577 yards are the fifth most in the NFL), dropped to the turf on the practice field and joined in on doing penalty pushups.

“I talked to Woody [yesterday] morning and he said, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if everyone in the organization took part in this?’ ” Matt Higgins, the Jets executive vice president of business operations, told The Post last night. “I sent out an e-mail and the next thing you know it spread like wildfire.”

With that, some 60 team staff members went outside and did pushups.

“The ‘Rudy’ moment came when everyone started filing single-file down the hall ready to drop and give 30,” Higgins said. “In this age of Rex [Ryan], this is so indicative of how people are willing to run through a wall for him. Nothing in the Rex era surprises me anymore. We crossed over to a different place when Rex dressed up as his brother [on Wednesday].”

Late yesterday afternoon, Higgins’ e-mail reached the Jets staff at their satellite office at the Meadowlands Stadium. He said the staff marched down to the stadium and gathered around the NFL shield logo on the field, dropped down and did 30 pushups — 10 for each of the three penalties that were committed in the team’s practice earlier in the day.

It got even better as the day wore on.

“Tonight, I started getting tweets from fans saying, ‘We want in,’ ” Higgins said. “They want me to tweet out to the fans how many penalties were committed in practice so they can take part in it.”

Higgins said he’s now “putting a system in place” to notify staff and fans of the penalty count so they can participate.

Johnson, Higgins said, “will never miss a opportunity to do some pushups. “He’s into fitness. We have a pretty fit culture here.”

Higgins, who ran the New York Marathon in 2009 in five hours and two minutes, said Johnson implemented a cardio class inside the Jets practice field house in the early evening a few nights a week, and it’s called the “Insanity Class.” Johnson also is going to build a fitness center for employees at the team’s Florham Park, N.J., facility.