Since when exactly do football games have rain delays?

Since they’re accompanied by thunder and lightning. That’s what happened last night, when the Eagles and Panthers were ushered off the field in the first quarter of the exhibition game at the Linc. They didn’t return for almost an hour.

The players beat a hasty retreat to the locker rooms. It’s not that easy for the fans. They have to fend for themselves for the most part.

A big part of this is because, after all, these are little more than glorified practice games. Ones that come with regular-season prices.

If may just be the biggest scam in sports. And it’s one of the reasons, among many, that I am no longer an Eagles season ticket holder. The Eagles don’t give you a choice. You have to buy the exhibition games. It’s part of the deal.

That doesn’t make it right.

And I repeat my pre-season mantra that I announce each year. Please tell me one thing you remember from last year’s pre-season games? Thought so.

And a month from now, we likely will remember little about the players or the game that was held last night at the Linc.

In fact, the one thing we are likely to remember is the fact that it was delayed for an hour.

Besides, I’m a newspaper editor. And I deal with deadlines. If you have an hour or two, I’ll tell you what an hour rain delay on an exhibition game, which take forever to play in the first place and which did not start until 8 p.m., does to our deadlines.

It’s not pretty. Kind of like last night’s weather.

Hey, how ‘bout that DeSean Jackson!