Mark Sanchez’s father eschews the bourgeoisie, hangs out with the drunks at Jets games

Some players’ families are wearing bright orange approximations of their son’s football uniform or creating garish jersey combination to make sure the national television audience realizes that their brother and boyfriend play on opposite sides like Brady Quinn’s sister did for the Fiesta Bowl in 2005 to squeeze out as much attention as possible during the five seconds where they get some face time. Mark Sanchez’s dad prefers just the opposite. While everyone else is running for camera happy seats or expensive luxury boxes with calamari pizza rolls and other assorted delicacies, he slips out of the family cheering section to find the worst seat in the house to enjoy the game with the degenerates and salt of the earth. I guess when you’re Mark Sanchez’s father you’re going to need a lot of private space to stage your extreme frustration when Sanchez blows five yard dump off after five yard dump off.

Mark Sanchez’s family gathers before every Jets game. They all find their seats at the stadium, get comfortable and wait with nervous anticipation for kickoff. That’s about when Mark’s father, Nick Sanchez, makes his getaway. It’s nothing personal. Just his routine. His ritual. Nick Sanchez Sr., who has never missed one of his son’s games despite the entire family living in California, craves his own personal space while watching Mark play.

So every game, he disappears from the family seats and wanders around the stadium until he has gravitated to the highest, worst open seat in the house he can find. He isn’t one of those parents who wears his son’s jersey to games. “I don’t even own one,” Nick Sr. said from California yesterday. He simply wants to blend into the fabric of the crowd.

I can respect a man who has no interest in the trappings of fame or the public eye that can come with a son who makes it big. While his son is off posing in GQ magazine in his rocky attempt at becoming the next Joe Namath, his father the lifelong firefighter is acting like the regular Joe he is by not letting the fame his son has acquired change his lifestyle. For example, even though his son is in the second year of a $50 million contract, he still keeps his old travel quirk of finding the cheapest flight possible to watch Mark’s away games. Let’s hope Mark can someday acquire such deft decision making skills for his journey on the football field.

Sanchez’s dad goes high and far to watch son play [NYPOST.com]