Get off it.
If Reagan actually had suddenly resigned in the middle of his first gubernatorial term, and tried to mitigate the fallout with a bunch of football metaphors, -he too would have been lambasted from all sides.
Reagan wouldn't have resigned with barely eighteen months to go in office. That's the last thing he would have actually done.
But then again, he was governor of sunny CALIFORNIA (and its 47 electoral votes) as opposed to far away Alaska (and its 3 electroal votes). Big difference there, kemosabe.