What Andy Reid Can Learn From Joe Paterno

There was a time, and it wasn’t always just on a warm summer’s eve on a train bound for nowhere, when people knew when best to fold ‘em. But unfortunately, the timely exit, like smoky backroom poker games, has become a vestige of a wiser and more congenial past.

Examples abound. Take Joe Paterno, a card-carrying two-time offender of the not-knowing-when-to-fold-it club. Common sense would have had the man propped up in the backseat of a limo convertible a decade ago and waving goodbye to the adoring Beaver Stadium faithful as the car circled his field of glory.

Instead, he became a revered old coot, one who barely knew one player from the next, and who didn’t know that everybody secretly wanted him out. When he got a second chance to hit the pike with a smidgen of respect recently about the time he was being stripped of the “revered” part of his old coot status, he refused to grab for the door handle.

Instead, he went for the big bluff. Yo, slick. You got no cards. You’re done.

Jon Huntzman. Michele Bachmann. Rick Santorum.

Rick Perry. Herman Cain.

Exactly why are these podium hangers still with us?

Fame, fortune, ego? Exit’s this way, single file. The lady first.

Dear Andy Reid: You really don’t want to be in this town when the love goes asunder. And asunder it has gone. Advice: A little self-deprecation and a gracious exit talk will go a long way. Then move the fam to, say, Charlotte or Jacksonville for a nice winter’s rest. Quiet down there. Fret not, the phone will ring. It always does.

Occupy Philly. Seriously?

Nothing beats taking it to the streets. We were there for you. The rich keep getting richer. The system’s all out of whack.

Kudos. A serious point well made.

Now, though, the only people left are the anarchists who should be forming a line at Wendy’s with job apps in hand, like yesterday.

When the fire hoses finally come out, is anybody going to fret?

Pack up those tents. It’s raining, fools.

The secret to surviving, to quote that old wise man Kenny Rogers, “is knowin’ what to throw away and knowin’ what to keep.”

Spread the word.