Morning Report: McNabb and the big, bad media

The latest Donovan McNabb flap certainly has the fans stirred up.

And the object of their ire is not the Eagles quarterback.

Nope. The target of fan anger appears to be (aw, you guessed) the news media.

So let's point some things out to the irate.

1. The media are not trying to run poor Donovan out of town - McNabb is apparently trying to force a trade.

2. The media are not picking on poor Donovan - either McNabb or someone in his circle approached ESPN.

3. By saying the Eagles are in a rebuilding era whether they like it or not, I am merely stating the obvious.

Remember - no one is advocating trading McNabb. It was the quarterback himself who floated that notion through a "source."

When a team must replace its quarterback, both offensive tackles and its tight end, and when said team has no fullback, a badly damaged running back with no proven backup, a 34-year-old kicker who suffered his most inconsistent year as a pro, and a tepid group of wide receivers in a pass-first offense, that team can fairly be said to be rebuilding.

One kind e-mail respondent said he agreed completely with my assessment but predicted I would ignite a firestorm with the word rebuilding. I should, he suggested, use "retooling."

Thanks, friend. But it might be too late for that.

NASCAR revisited. A couple of years ago, The Inquirer took a pasting from radio callers for playing a preview of the Daytona 500 on the front page of the Sunday section.

In vain, I tried to explain to reluctant Philadelphians that NASCAR is a major sport.

But the numbers are hard to refute.

Sunday's Penguins-Capitals NHL game earned a 1.1 television rating and Phil Mickelson's win at Riviera on the PGA Tour's Northern Trust Open got a 3.5.

NASCAR's Auto Club 500 earned a 5.3.

Note to Cole. Phillies lefthander and World Series MVP Cole Hamels seemed to be trying to cool things between his club and the New York Mets yesterday.

The trash-talking - most of it emanating from a New York tabloid - was getting a bit out of hand, he thought.

Not at all, Cole. The more players say what's on their minds, the better the fans like it. So, ahem, do the news media.

Sports figures have become so bland in their public statements, it makes you wonder if they all have the same voice coach.

Hamels does seem to get the main point, though - if fans are focusing on a Phillies-Mets pennant race, they might not spend so much time thinking about which slugger is injecting what substance into whose buttocks.

So bring on the rivalry and the pep talks from Jimmy Rollins or whoever in the locker room wants to taunt the Mets.

"I guess if it gets more exciting when we play, I think that's good for baseball," Hamels told reporters. "I think that's what baseball needs. It needs some good rivalries to forget about the other stuff off the field that's been happening."

Phils-Mets trash talk. That's a sport we all can love.

Post a question or comment for staff writer Don McKee at http://go.philly.com/askmckee or by e-mail at dmckee@phillynews.com.