MINNEAPOLIS — The bus to Newark Airport was scheduled to leave 1925 Giants Drive at 12:40 p.m. Saturday, and on it were the men hellbent on bringing honor to those who came before them and making New York proud again.

“We’re gonna try our very, very best to do that,” Darius Slayton told The Post, “and I’m confident that we will.” 

The Big Blue charter to Minneapolis took off filled with defiant dreamers who believe they will beat the Vikings in Sunday’s wild-card playoff game and continue along the Road to Super Bowl 2023. 

They are the ones who have dragged the franchise out of the darkness that had enveloped it and dared to dream the Impossible Dream, and suddenly nothing seems impossible for them, or to them.

This is a chance for them to leave forever footprints, to leave an emphatic, nostalgic reminder to the ghosts of Frank Gifford and Emlen Tunnell and Andy Robustelli and Rosey Brown and to the legion of diehards of what it means to be a New York Football Giant. 

“You want to make people that have such great pride in your team and your organization, you want to make ’em proud,” Wink Martindale told The Post. “And it’s been a while since they’ve been able to do that. I think it’s fun to see.” 

I asked Brian Daboll’s fearless defensive coordinator: Are you confident that your defense and this team will make them proud?

“Oh yeah,” Martindale said. “I’m very confident in that. They should’ve already made ’em proud. Forget where we’re at because we’ve come a long, hard way, and it’s a credit to those players.” 

They’ve come a long hard way from where Daboll and Joe Schoen found them, flat on their backs and desperate for someone to lift them back up, and remarkably assembled this team of True Blue Believers. 

“I’m sure we’ve already made them proud,” Leonard Williams told The Post, “but we’re gonna give them something to look forward to this week, and future weeks, and future seasons, for a long time.” 

The Empire State Building was lit blue on Big Blue Friday, when Giants fans were encouraged to wear blue. The retail store with playoff merchandise was open inside MetLife Stadium from 10-8. 

“I think as a player,” Giants legend Phil Simms said, “wherever you go, wherever you go, there’s Giant fans everywhere, and how much it means to ’em. And I’d always hear this — ‘My dad, my grandfather’ … it’s the love of the Giants that’s just passed down from generation to generation. And it takes a few years to really feel that and learn it. When you first become a pro, and you’re on the Giants, you’re just trying to survive and be part of the organization. As [Bill] Parcells would say, ‘You’ll understand this more and more once you’re done playing.’ ” 

Simms references Giants fans stopping him Wednesday and says: “I went to the gym, I went to the grocery store and then I went to a place to get a protein shake and a good sandwich, and they go, ‘Whaddya think?’ And they’re so excited about the game and the season the Giants had. It’s fun to be out in that atmosphere even as an ex-player.” 

It has always meant something to be a New York Football Giant. To the fans and to the players and coaches and all the employees who have worked for the late Wellington Mara’s franchise and now for his son John Mara and partner Steve Tisch.

“There’s only a few franchises in this league that have a rich history, and we’re one of ’em, one of the cornerstone franchises,” Slayton said. “When you have that kinda pedigree behind you, there’s a certain standard that people expect, and that’s to win.” 

The majority of Giants players have learned the hard way that there is no worse place to lose, but they have learned this season that there is no greater place to win. 

“This city appreciates winning, this community appreciates winning, and so to be a part of that culture right now and have some stuff in front of us to play for, it’s exciting,” Julian Love said. 

The Jets just missed the playoffs for the 12th straight time. The 1981 Ray Perkins Giants ended an 18-year playoff drought that tormented the Maras. The 2022 Giants, during Year 1 of a new regime, ended a playoff drought that began in 2017 and felt longer to so many. 

And now, after all the lost seasons, all the coaching changes, an OUR WAY hype video: a smart, tough, dependable way. 

“To me personally, both New York teams have not been in the playoffs for a long time and I played on both,” Williams said, “and it feels good to see New York excited and happy again, and cheering in a postseason event. It’s been awesome to like go to Rangers games and feel the atmosphere when they were in the playoffs and stuff like that. It’s amazing to see the city really back you when you’re winning. It’s a tough city to be in when you’re losing, but it’s also amazing when you’re winning, and I’m seeing the upside of it now.” 

Make New York proud and the sky’s the limit.