If there is something to say about Roy Higgins III, it is that he is perfectly comfortable — maybe even most at home — standing out in a big, big crowd.

It was weeks ago when I was looking for him amid the sea of tailgating fans swelling in the parking lots for a Monday night tilt at M&T Bank Stadium. “I’m the one wearing a white cowboy hat,” he told me, knowing his purple-and-black Ravens-themed suspenders would not be enough to distinguish him in this environment.

That invitation is for everyone. Higgins had posted a picture of his game fit to Twitter, where he has quickly become a Ravens social media sensation for his enthusiastic support of his undrafted rookie linebacker son, Jay (born Roy Higgins IV but going by his middle name).

At the Jimmy’s Famous Seafood TailGOAT near the line for oysters, a fellow fan tapped him on the shoulder, said, “Mr. Higgins, welcome!” and gave him a bear hug.

“That’s one of my internet friends,” Roy said of the man, whom he had never met before. “That Baltimore hospitality, baby.”

Times are precarious in Ravens Nation. The team’s 1-4 start has fueled cynicism and bitterness after Super Bowl dreams were on everyone’s lips as the season was kicking off just over a month ago. Stars are injured. Coaches are on the hot seat. On Sunday, the stadium emptied quickly in the second half during a brutal butt-kicking at the hands of the Houston Texans.

Into this tumult charges Roy Higgins III, an unquenchable drop of sunshine and optimism who bought Ravens gear moments after general manager Eric DeCosta got off the phone with his son to offer him a job. When Jay was preparing to graduate from Iowa, coach Kirk Ferentz told the local media: “We may have to put him [Roy] on staff here after Jay leaves.”

The Higgins family is used to it.

“My dad, I don’t know, he’s a people person, so he gets comfortable real quick,” Jay said. “That’s how it’s been everywhere. If there’s people who care about football or wherever I’m at, usually blends in well with everybody.”

You have to understand this is not the Higgins family’s first rodeo. This is, after all, a family of horse-loving folks.

“Some people bowl; some people fish,” Roy said. “I don’t bowl and I don’t fish, but I love animals.”

The Higginses live in an Indianapolis cul-de-sac, but a collection of animals including horses, chickens, pigs and rabbits — which fuels Roy’s side hustle running a traveling petting zoo — keeps them close to the family’s roots outside Louisville, Kentucky. When Jay called his dad to let him know he had made a spot on the 53-man roster, Roy literally had his hands full. “I had one hand on the phone and the other on one of my goats.”

Jay’s first ride on a pony was at less than a year old. With tiny hands, he clung to the saddle horn as his dad led him in circles around a barrel.

Although they did not grow up on a farm, the Higgins family attributes some of Jay’s strength to these rhythms of country life. Every week or two, they had to pick up 14 bales of hay for the horses, and at 9 years old Jay could lift a bale above his head, his mother, Shelley Higgins, said.

He hasn’t ridden a horse in a while. “I’ll hop on for 30 seconds, but nothing crazy. You’re a long way from the ground.”

His car, however, is naturally a white Ford Mustang.

Roy and Jay shared another passion: football. Even though his son was one of the biggest children on his team growing up, Roy convinced the youth coaches to let him play standing up instead of in the trenches.

“I thought, ‘How can I help groom him into something special?’” Roy reflected. “I was looking at his future, knowing he was gonna be bigger but that he wouldn’t be the biggest kid in the room at the next level. But he always had a good football IQ, and he always was willing to do the work.”

Jay has always found level in his football career, even though it has often required patience. At Iowa, he sat down the depth chart at linebacker for three seasons before breaking through in 2023 and earning second-team All-America honors. He was named to the first team the following season.

Jay’s journey to pro football presented similar roadblocks. His performance at the NFL combine was not enough to diminish talent evaluators’ concerns about his size and athleticism, and the All-America linebacker wound up undrafted.

On the third night of the draft, as it became clearer his son wouldn’t be chosen, Roy said he saw Jay “get a little weak” and frustrated. But Roy said he knew his son would get a chance with his résumé — and soon enough the Ravens, who have a history of taking players from the state of Iowa, came calling.

The family viewed it as a kind of providence. In addition to having relatives who live in Maryland — summer visits to Baltimore gave Roy and Jay a decidedly un-Midwestern taste for seafood — they view the Ravens’ track record of developing undrafted players as a sign that Jay is in the right place.

“Baltimore is the best possible place for him,” Roy said. “I’ve seen how the kid goes to the level that he needs to go to. There’s something innately in him to achieve and reach his goals. When the Ravens call his number, he’ll be ready.”

Jay said he lets his dad work on community relations. He concentrates on preparing in case the Ravens, who have an extensive injury report these days, need him to fill in.

“I’ve let him do what he does, and I focus on, you know, making tackles and playing football,” Jay said, laughing. “If I’m not playing good football, he won’t be cheering for the Ravens too much longer, so I leave all the extracurricular activities to him.”

There may not be a family in the Ravens Flock more suited to wait out the cloudy times than the Higginses. You will find Roy at the tailgate, rain or shine, as the favorite or the underdog, doing his thing with a smile.

It’s what he and the Higgins family have always done — rallying around their team, and each other, no matter how adverse the circumstances.

It seems to work out well, more times than not.