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Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner looks on during training camp at the Atlantic...

Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner looks on during training camp at the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center in Florham Park, N.J., on Saturday. Credit: Patrick E. McCarthy

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Sauce Gardner feels as if he’s made it, and it has nothing to do with football.

The second-year Jets cornerback is now a college graduate. He walked in Friday’s commencement at the University of Cincinnati and received his diploma.

“I feel like that was the one box I hadn’t checked,” Gardner said Saturday after practice. “Now I can really say I made it. If somebody asked me when did I know that I made it? That’s when — when I crossed the stage.”

Gardner, 22, is proving that he can do anything he sets his sights toward. As a rookie, he said he wanted to make the Pro Bowl, be an All-Pro and earn Defensive Rookie of the Year honors. He reached all three goals.

Gardner, who left Cincinnati after his junior year, promised his mother that he would get his college degree after his rookie season. He said he had “to meet my mom halfway” because she didn’t want him to leave school early.

Gardner finished off the 12 credits he needed by taking classes in the offseason and graduated with a degree in interdisciplinary studies.

“Everybody always hears from the athletes, ‘Yeah, I’m going to get it, trust me,’ ” Gardner said. “I told her I was going to get it. I said I was going to do it after my first season. It all made sense. I achieved what I wanted to achieve in my first season. That’s all I needed. Those were the signs I needed. It was meant to happen.”

Gardner said it was “extremely great” to see how happy his mother was after he walked across the stage. It worked out perfectly with the Jets’ schedule. They played in the Hall of Fame Game in Canton, Ohio, on Thursday and had Friday off. Gardner stayed in Ohio and graduated.

He said it was somewhat like a game day for him. The school asked him if he wanted to sit in a suite, but Gardner said no. He wanted to be on the stage with the rest of the graduates.

“I wanted to go down there so it felt even more real, like my parents, my family could look down and see me sitting,” Gardner said. “I ain’t going to lie: It kind of felt like game day a little bit. I was a little anxious. I didn’t know what to expect. It was a true blessing.”

Gardner took selfies with some of his fellow graduates and talked to someone wearing a Jets’ No. 1 jersey under his gown.

“It was cool to be able to feel regular, feel like a student again,” Gardner said. “Those conversations were great conversations. I made a lot of people’s day.”

Gardner had other reasons for wanting to get his degree. Another very important one: He wants to be a positive role model for children who look up to him and with whom he works through the Sauce Gardner Family Foundation.

Gardner comes from Detroit, where he said there’s “a lot of rough places.” He wants to be a positive influence and show “the new generation that they can do anything they put their mind to.”

Gardner even inspired some teammates.

Quinnen Williams, who comes from a family of educators, said he’s nine credits shy of his degree from the University of Alabama.

“I need to go get my degree now,” he said. “Seeing Sauce going out there — playful, goofy, exciting player that he is — to see him go get his degree is phenomenal. It definitely motivated me to say I need to stop playing and go and get my degree this offseason for sure.

“I’m just right there. I need to go finish it. I probably got nine credits, so I got a semester left. I can go knock that out easy.”

Gardner said Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers was one of the first people to reach out and congratulate him. The two have built a close relationship in a short time. Rodgers called Gardner his new best friend during the NBC telecast of Thursday night’s game.

Jets coach Robert Saleh expressed pride in Gardner the graduate.

“I think it’s great,” Saleh said. “He’s doing it for generations. He’s not just doing it for himself, which is awesome. There’s so many young kids that look up to him. There’s family going to come after him, his kids, God willing, one day. It signifies so much in what he’s been able to achieve and what he still can achieve as he goes forward in his career.”

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