NFL

No defiant message in Mark Sanchez’s mustache — just punch lines

NOW, HAIR THIS: Mark Sanchez says he grew his Fu Manchu on a dare, but that hasn’t stopped the comparisons with Joe Namath (inset top) — and the jokes about Hulk Hogan (inset bottom, near left) and “Dodgeball” character White Goodman (inset bottom right). (AP(2); Getty Images; Twentieth Century Fox)

Mark Sanchez is keeping a stiff upper lip as Geno Smith reaches for his job, and a Fu Manchu mustache above it that a rebel with a cause named Broadway Joe Namath rocked in the late 196Os.

Smith sports a pencil thin rookie mustache, which means that in one aspect of their quarterback competition, it is Sanchez by a whisker.

“Unfortunately, it’s not in my genetics to have much facial hair, so I don’t know if I’ll be able to grow one,” Smith told The Post. “I think Mark’s is pretty cool, man. He reminds me of White Goodman from ‘Dodgeball.’ ”

Willie Colon has heard other comparisons.

“I’ve heard people throw shots at him,” Colon said. “He’s taken it well, and he comes in every day and still rocks it and does a great job with it.”

I asked Colon to disclose some of the things he has heard.

“That he looks like an anorexic Hulk Hogan. … They say he looks like one of those king fu masters,” Colon said.

Colon, the hirsute guard, sees the Fu Manchu as a symbol of the embattled quarterback’s inner strength.

“I think Mark has a lot of character. … He’s a very passionate person. … I think it just shows that with all the criticism he takes, he’s able to laugh at himself also,” Colon said. “Go out there, and play with a great mustache.”

Namath once shaved his off for $10,000 in a commercial for Schick electric razors.

“Maybe it’s a tribute to Broadway Joe, who knows?” Colon said.

It’s not.

“At first, I believe he went with the goatee, and that was pretty subpar,” Nick Mangold said. “But then, he was ready to shave it, and he started with the chin, and it dawned on him that greatness could be had with the Fu Manchu.”

Mangold, the hirsute center, was informed Namath wore a Fu Manchu.

“Did they even have cameras back then?” Mangold asked.

The Fu Manchu is no stranger to Jets training camp.

“Most recently, Marty Mornhinweg,” Mangold said.

He shaved it off?

“I haven’t been paying attention, but I think he did,” Mangold said.

Asked how his quarterback’s Fu Manchu compared with the Hulkster’s, Mangold said: “He’s got a while to go. But with a lot of dedication and a lot of hard work, he can get there.”

It is Mangold’s opinion that Jeremy Kerley, who is sporting a two-month-old goatee these days, might be able to pull off a Fu Manchu.

How about Rex Ryan?

“I don’t think Rex can grow facial hair,” Mangold said. “I think he’s very … sparse.”

Colon nominated D’Brickashaw Ferguson as a Fu Manchu candidate.

“I think he’ll look like a tough security guard if he had one,” Colon said.

There is no Fu Manchu in Kerley’s future.

“I’m trying to rock out the full Wolfman,” Kerley said. “I told Clyde [Gates] I wasn’t going to cut it for a year. Matter of fact, we had a bet — first person cut theirs, it’s going to be a little wager involved.”

Many Jets fans consider Sanchez’s headband a headfumble, but at least he’s in good company with the Fu Manchu. Other than Namath, the list includes: Boris Karloff, Ted Nugent, Nicolas Cage, John Travolta, Robert Downey Jr., Max von Sydow, Christopher Lee, Chow Yun-Fat. Even Aaron Rodgers, Joe Montana and Joe Flacco.

The Fu Manchu category in the World Beard & Moustache Championships is described thusly: “Chin shaved with moustache allowed to start to grow up to a maximum of 2 cm beyond and below the end of the upper lip.

“Tips are long and pulled down. Aids are allowed.”

Wikipedia: “Dr. Fu Manchu is a fictional character first featured in a series of novels by English author Sax Rohmer during the first half of the 20th century. The character also was featured extensively in cinema, television, radio, comic strips and comic books for more than 90 years, and has become an archetype of evil criminal genius while inspiring the Fu Manchu moustache.”

Full disclosure: I must confess that because Namath had one, I grew one in college.

“It was a dare,” Sanchez told The Post. “A good friend of mine was there when I wore the regular one for [the preseason opener in] Detroit, just a full goatee, he said, ‘You won’t do a Fu Manchu?’

“So why not?”

steve.serby@nypost.com