"Bernard Hopkins took a loud lap around Radio Row Friday at the media headquarters for Super Bowl XLIV.

At first, the 45-year-old prize fighter from Philadelphia promoted his long-awaited rematch with 41-year-old Roy Jones Jr. set for April 3 in Las Vegas. Eventually, at Hopkins' urging, the subject turned to Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb, who was not far away on South Beach being interviewed by the NFL Network about Sunday's title game between the New Orleans Saints and Indianapolis Colts.

As always in recent years, Hopkins ripped the Eagles' quarterback.

"The people now say, 'Take him to Arizona, he has a house there,' " Hopkins said. "But my thing is I've been telling you this since after the [Eagles' 2005] Super Bowl [loss]. At the end of the day, you have a guy that is a front-runner. You have a guy that doesn't even give a hint that he's upset. He smiles. He doesn't show any type of feeling of 'Damn, we're so close and we kicked the bucket.' "

McNabb could not be reached for comment Friday, but Rich Burg, a publicist for the Eagles' quarterback, said Hopkins' anger stems from a meeting between the two men at the NovaCare Complex earlier in this decade.

Hopkins attended a practice in 2004. Burg said McNabb was unaware Hopkins was visiting until a brief meeting before the practice. Burg said the meeting was too brief for Hopkins, who felt shunned. Burg worked for the Eagles' media relations department at the time.

"If there is any one who is craving attention, it's Bernard Hopkins," Burg said. "He tries to get it all the time by using Donovan's name. Donovan has shown his class by ignoring the entire thing."

Bob Lange, the San Francisco 49ers' media relations director, stood nearby while Hopkins made his statements yesterday and told the same story as Burg about the meeting between McNabb and Hopkins. Lange, who worked for the Eagles at the time, added that former Eagles receiver Terrell Owens became close with Hopkins.

Hopkins said if McNabb had better body language during a game that Eagles fans would like him more.

"Fake me out," Hopkins said. "Throw Gatorade. People would look at that - even if it's a bleeping act - and say to themselves . . . he's upset because they just blew it just like I'm upset as a fan. They would say he relates to the fans. He don't relate to the fans by his body language. The fans can't feel you."

As Hopkins continued, the accusations became nastier.

"When you have that smile and you come out of the tunnel doing the Michael Jackson dance and the score is zero-zero - are you kidding me?" said the oldest man to ever hold a middleweight boxing title. "You're dancing and doing all this moonwalk and the score is zero-zero and you're saying, 'I'm ready.' I told people McNabb needed to go three years ago and they were, 'Oh, you're hard on McNabb.' Now the same people are saying, 'Oh, you're right. He needs to go, he needs to go.' "

Hopkins sugg