A Detroit Lions linebacker with just a single solo tackle this year recorded his first sack of the season early Saturday inside a Queens stationhouse — when he flew into a rage and delivered a concussion-causing punch to the head of an NYPD sergeant, officials said.

Things began going out of bounds for Trevor Bates, 25, at around 3 a.m., when he was arrested in front of the Hampton Inn Hotel in East Elmhurst near Laguardia Airport for refusing to pay the $32 cab fare from Manhattan, officials said.

The 6-foot-2, 247-pound player — who spent 2017 on the practice squads of the Patriots and the Giants — was planning to head to his native Maine on a connecting flight, his family told The Post.

Instead, he was taken to the 115th Precinct for processing.

But something apparently set the NFLer off when Sgt. James O’Brien approached him to escort him to be fingerprinted, Sergeants Benevolent Association President Ed Mullins told The Post.

“The sergeant assured him that it was no big deal. He told him, ‘You’ll get scanned. You’ll get paper. You’ll get a court date,’” Mullins said. But Bates, who is originally from Maine, refused to be fingerprinted, police said.

“Out of the clear blue sky, he just wailed on the sergeant. The sergeant said he never saw it coming,” Mullins said.

A roundhouse punch to the left eye left the sarge momentarily blinded, Mullins said.

It took multiple cops to subdue the raging player — and even a Taser didn’t help, Mullins said.

“They Tased him and he ripped the prongs out” of his body, Mullins said.

The union ripped into Bates — and the NFL later in the day.

“Trevor Bates acted beyond that of a wild animal,” the SBA tweeted Saturday. “He’s dog crap and the NFL condones criminals,”

Bates, who appeared in nine games for the Lions this year, was taken to Elmhurst Hospital Center, and then transferred to Bellevue Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation.

He’s facing charges of second-degree assault, obstructing governmental administration, theft of services and resisting arrest.

If convicted, Bates could serve anywhere from probation up to seven years prison, said Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.

The sergeant was taken to New York Presbyterian Hospital-Queens, where he was treated for a concussion, received three stitches above his eye, and later released.

Bates, who was a stand-out player for the University of Maine Black Bears, was a seventh-round draft pick by the Colts in 2016.

The next year, he won a spot on the New England Patriots practice squad, and was on the team when it won Super Bowl LI.

The linebacker’s mom, Christy Bates, of Westbrook, Me., was stunned by the news — and insisted the allegations were completely out of character for her son.

“I’m shocked because he’s not a fighter,” she said. “He’s a great guy,” she said.

“I’m waiting to hear back from the doctors,” she added.

Christy, along with a friend, Steve, who was at her house Saturday morning, told The Post that Bates had been exhausted lately.

The pal said Bates was “frayed from the season.”

“I’m just blown back,” said his paternal grandmother, Lillian Bates, 70, of Attleboro, Mass.

“That’s not like Trevor … My Trevor is a God-fearing young man and he loves helping his community and he loves putting the kids on a straight path,” she said.

“And he loves football.”

Bates portrays himself as a devout and active Christian on his Twitter profile, which is filled with photos of his participation in charities including Athletes for Hope, Friendship Circle and the Prison Fellowship’s Angel Tree program.

“Jesus > religion,” he tweeted back in October.

“We are aware of the arrest of Trevor Bates earlier today in New York,” the Lions said in a press statement, declining further comment.

The NFL said “The matter will be reviewed under the league’s personal conduct policy.

Bates was signed last year to a two-year, $1 million contract.

His arrest Saturday was one of the first for an NFL player in 2019. Saints cornerback P.J. Williams notched a DWI arrest on Jan. 23 in New Orleans.

Additional reporting by Dean Balsamini, Amanda Woods, Kenneth Garger and Laura Italiano