Matias Ferreira had just moved to New York from Clayton County, Georgia, when he attended a Jets game in New Jersey about 15 years ago.
“I’m sitting there hanging out with my family, wearing a Georgia Bulldogs hat up in the nosebleeds. I wasn’t really a Jets fan at the time,” Ferreira, a 36-year-old Suffolk County police officer, told The Post.
Soon after, the PA announcer asked members of the military to stand so that they could be properly recognized for their service to the nation.
Like that, Ferreira, a Marine who lost both of his legs to an IED blast in Afghanistan in 2011, rose to his feet as a nearby “six-foot-five, 300-pound” man was brought to tears of gratitude after seeing the 36-year-old’s two prosthetic devices.
“He goes, ‘What are you doing in that Georgia hat?’ and I say, ‘I just moved here,’ ” recalled Ferreira, a former machine gunner.
“He takes off his Wayne Chrebet jersey. He gives it to me and goes, ‘I want you to wear this from now on — you’re a New Yorker.’”
Ever since the touching moment, Ferreira, who played semipro football in Atlanta, has been a proud “Jets fan by association,” and will be honored by Gang Green as the veteran of the game this Sunday against the Cowboys at MetLife Stadium.
As an active duty member of Suffolk’s 4th Precinct — he can drive a police car with no issues and is in top physical shape — Ferreira was utterly blindsided by the good news at a recent news conference the department held.
“I was told, make sure you’re dressed well, we’re doing something on street racing, which I had been involved in, arrest-wise. I go into the conference room and see the Jets military liaison,” he recalled.
Shortly after, the man’s phone rings, and a voice on the other side asks Ferreira to come forward.
It was former Jets fullback Tony Richardson on FaceTime.
“He says, ‘Man, my dad is a veteran from the Marine Corps, a Purple Heart recipient,’” recalled the police officer, who currently plays on a traveling amputee softball team, the USA Patriots.
“This really caught me by surprise. And of course, a good one.”
Ferreira, a father of two who maintains a positive outlook on life through his devout Christian faith, is deeply connected to the Biblical book of Job.
“I had every moment after I was injured to go ‘Why me?’ but it made me realize, wow, I’ve had everything I’ve ever wanted in my life,” he said. “I have a beautiful family, I have a paycheck, I have a great career.”
Now Ferreira, a police officer for almost a decade, takes it upon himself to uplift others adjusting after losing their own limbs — on and off the job.
He even passed along helpful words to Louis Plumitallo, a 22-year-old Mount Sinai bodybuilder who lost his right leg just after high school.
“God shifted his light from this horrible accident to giving me the power to help people,” Ferreira said.
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