He’s not Broadway Joe yet — but he does love Broadway shows.
Jet quarterback Mark Sanchez’s passion for musical theater is the subject of much ribbing from his teammates, players told The Post yesterday.
“He’s into old weird music and he’s into Broadway shows,” offensive lineman Brandon Moore said. “Stuff you would not think he’d be into.”
Andrew Lloyd Webber aside, Sanchez — who’s one victory away from taking the Jets to the Super Bowl for the first time since Namath guaranteed victory 41 years ago — is as popular with the ladies as Broadway Joe was.
“He told us a story that he was on line for a Broadway show and someone said, ‘Oh, my God, it’s Mark Sanchez — he’s like a model,’ ” Moore said. “So he’s definitely got the look and definitely got that ‘it’ about him. He’s also a great guy.”
And while Sanchez may now be a Jet — and if he wins the Super Bowl he’ll be a Jet all the way — his journey to New York’s biggest football stage has not exactly been a song-and-dance routine.
EXCLUSIVE: MARK SANCHEZ’S FAMILY PHOTOS
PHOTOS: SANCHEZ’S BEARD: LOVE IT OR HATE IT?
His Mexican-born great-grandparents migrated to Southern California and worked as fruit pickers.
The youngest of three brothers, Mark was 4 years old when his parents divorced. His father, Nick Sr., an Orange County fire captain, and his mother Olga, have remained close and were both very involved in raising the boys.
Even when he didn’t have enough money to send Mark to quarterback camp, Nick Sr., ran elaborate drills in which the boy had to make passes and do his multiplication tables.
“Nick would push Mark to do his best,” his stepmother, Maddy Sanchez, 61, said. “I have pictures of Mark doing his homework where he’s falling asleep at the desk. Nick was a very strict father — but he’d back off when he had to.”
Mark also excelled at basketball, but his parents made sure he did not let athletics get in the way of his schoolwork.
On and off the field, Mark showed the desire to lead.
“Mark was a student body president, always involved in student government,” Maddy said. “Even from the time he was in grammar school he was the one who would be giving the speeches at the PTA. I mean he’s got a real outgoing personality, so it was really easy for him.”
Mark was a star quarterback at USC. His older brother, Nick Jr., played football at Yale, became a lawyer, and is now Mark’s agent and adviser.
Living with his brother Brandon in Bedminster, NJ, Mark does find time to blow off steam.
Since coming to the Jets, Mark has found time to take in shows such as “Wicked,” and more recently “Memphis.” which he raved about on Twitter.
In November, he celebrated his birthday with his brother and friends at Medieval Times in New Jersey, but mostly, he says he has focused all his energy on football.
“I just try to stay in the routine and be me,” he said yesterday. “I don’t try to change anything. I’m just tying to stay focused. I say, ‘You know, Mom and Dad, I’ll call you back later. I need to watch the Indy game again.”
The fact that the young, single and attractive star is not showing up more on Page Six than the sports pages is a disappointment to his married, settled-down teammates, several players joked.
“We get on him a lot for not being spotted by the paparazzi with a hot model or something,” Moore said. “We’re like, you need to be getting with some hot model. You can’t be living all alone with your brother and not having any stories for us.”
Kicker Jay Feely said part of the reason for Sanchez’s mostly low profile is his humility.
“I think he cares about football first and all the other things will take care of themselves,” Feely said. “I remember when he was trying to decide on one of the shoe companies — one of them wanted to make him the franchise and he said ‘I want to wait to accomplish something on the field first.’ I think that is great. It told me a lot about him as a person.”
Sanchez admits he’s young and still a little naive.
“There are a lot of people pointing at you and trying to get a piece of you,” he said. “You try to stay smart. And if you need to say no, you don’t want to be rude.”
Sanchez says he’s been dreaming about the Super Bowl, but he’s not ready to guarantee anything yet.
He wants to earn his Broadway mojo first.
10 things you didn’t know about Mark Sanchez:
1. Huge fan of Dave Matthews Band
2. Loves Broadway musicals and ’80s pop songs
3. Worked as a sous chef at Phil Trani’s, a Long Beach, Calif., restaurant, in between seasons at USC
4. Spent his last birthday at Medieval Times in Lyndhurst, NJ
5. Can’t get enough of the pasta at Carmine’s
6. Eats at Taco Bell every chance he gets
7. Lives with his brother Brandon in Bedminster, NJ
8. Favorite meal: chorizo and eggs
9. Loved Adam Sandler in “Funny People”
10. Fishes to relax