New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez reacts with fans after the game against the Buffalo Bills in week 17 of the NFL season at New Meadowlands Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey on January 2, 2011. The Jets defeated the Bills 38-7 and advance to the playoffs. UPI /John Angelillo

Clearly still rattled by the loss to the Steelers in the AFC title game, Jets’ quarterback Mark Sanchez apparently decided to find comfort in the open arms of a 17-year-old girl. She’s a senior at her Connecticut high school and reportedly is the daughter of a preppy dad who is a “super-wealthy financier.”

From FOX News New York:

Sexy rich girl Eliza Kruger not only bragged on Facebook about “MARK F–ING SANCHEZ” texting her after they flirted at a hip Manhattan nightclub on New Year’s Eve — she also took photos of a mussed-up bed in his boudoir as “proof” of their huddle just days later.

“We went back to his place in Jersey after dinner. He lives on a golf course. There was a big storm,” Eliza told Deadspin.com, according to that Web site, which identified her only as E.K.

Asked if she “hooked up” with the 24-year-old Sanchez that night — after they dined together at Midtown hotspot Nobu the first week of January — the Greenwich high-school senior said, “Yeah,” albeit somewhat reluctantly, according to Deadspin.

When a Deadspin editor told her he would research the legality, Eliza reportedly replied that the age of sexual consent in New Jersey is “16. I checked.”

“He’s a really nice guy, you know,” Eliza told the site. “He’s one of the kindest people, and he’s a genuine person.”

Hey, you can find love in all kinds of different places but what in the name of Fireman Ed is Sanchez thinking? I don’t care if she is a bombshell: she’s 17 and he’s a public figure. The age difference between the two is only seven years but maturity-wise, they might as well be 40-years apart. (By the way, this may or may not be a photo of her.)

He’s the quarterback of the New York freaking Jets and she’s still in high school. I just don’t know what goes through these athletes’ heads sometimes. The guy has dated models before and he’s taking a high school senior to dinner and back to his place? How stupid.

The only saving grace for Sanchez may be that he didn’t know how old she was. Seventeen-year-olds can look 24 these days and they met at a nightclub, so maybe he thought they were the same age (or at least 21 since she was in a bar). Unless the female looks super young, I don’t know any dudes that card a girl before they attempt to pick her up at a club.

If he didn’t know how old she was, then they best thing for him to do is come clean and be honest. The fact that he didn’t know her age is certainly more tolerable than him knowingly dating a high school senior. Or hey, maybe this story isn’t even true and she’s a liar. I hope for Sanchez’s sake that that’s the case.