Text messages from press row...

It still doesn’t seem right to have teams from Nashville and Indianapolis and Charlotte making the NFL playoffs when there is no team, good or bad, in Los Angeles. . . .

For Lakers fans, the sight of Kobe Bryant drilling a clutch jumper with time running out never grows old. Too bad he couldn’t get one last look Wednesday. . . .

If many observers considered Derek Lowe the third-best starting pitcher on the free-agent market behind CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett, why did the Dodgers have no use for him? . . .

An all-bird Super Bowl matching the Baltimore Ravens and the Philadelphia Eagles or Arizona Cardinals would be a first. . . .

Kurt Warner would all but sew up a place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame if he takes the Cardinals to the Super Bowl. . . .

Ditto Ben Roethlisberger if he leads the Pittsburgh Steelers to their second Super Bowl title in four seasons. . . .

Noting that Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl has ceremoniously changed his last name to Steelerstahl in advance of Sunday’s AFC championship game, reader Bill Littlejohn of South Lake Tahoe, Calif., e-mails to suggest that Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon, if convicted on perjury and theft charges, “could have her name changed to a number.” . . .

If Tim Floyd and USC hope to forge a Duke-North Carolina type of rivalry with Ben Howland and UCLA, they’re going to have to first start beating the Bruins in the Galen Center. . . .

After Florida won its second Bowl Championship Series title in three years, USC fans are still wondering, why is a September home loss to Mississippi less objectionable than a September road loss to Oregon State? . . .

The solution, of course, is to win all your games. . . .

Unless you’re Utah. . . .

Rollen Stewart, a.k.a. the Rainbow Man or Rock ‘n’ Rollen, was labeled a wacko 20 years ago for espousing biblical messages by carrying signs at sporting events, but few said anything last week when Tim Tebow scribbled one onto his eye black. . . .

Speaking of the Florida quarterback, reader Bill Petok of Long Island, N.Y., e-mails to note that a horse named Go Tebow Go won the seventh race at Tampa Bay Downs on the same day the Gators won the BCS title game and that a $2 exacta ticket pairing Go Tebow Go and Heros Image paid $31. . . .

Viewer reaction to Charles Barkley being taken off the air can be summed up in three words: That’s just terrible. . . .

Responding to an item about the difficulty of picking an all-time Lakers starting five, reader Brian Stutchman of Willard, Ohio, e-mails to suggest a game of shirts versus skins matching “Magic, The Logo, Kareem, Big Game James and Shaq” against “Kobe, Gail Goodrich, Wilt, Elgin and Silk Wilkes.” . . .

Choosing an all-time announcer to call the action, of course, would be a slaaaaammm dunk! . . .

Former USC safety Troy Polamalu of the Steelers will be featured in a Super Bowl-debuting remake of the famous Coca-Cola commercial that made former Steelers defensive lineman “Mean” Joe Greene a star 30 years ago and was listed by TV Guide as one of the top 10 advertising spots of all time. . . .

Ageless wonder Niklas Lidstrom and the defending Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings make their final Southland appearance of the season tonight against the Kings in Staples Center -- unless, of course, they return in the playoffs to face the Ducks. . . .

Pepperdine third baseman Colin Rooney will play the season with a heavy heart after his father, Bill, and oldest brother, Patrick, a former Pepperdine third baseman, were killed Sunday in a plane crash outside Steamboat Springs, Colo. . . .

Today is the last day to cast votes at lasports.org for the greatest Southland sports moments of 2008, with the winners announced Jan. 23 at a dinner in Beverly Hills. . . .

One of sport’s most spectacular but hard-to-schedule events, the Mavericks Surf Contest featuring wave faces in excess of 30 feet, could be a go Saturday north of Half Moon Bay, Calif., if a swell headed from Hawaii doesn’t lose too much steam. . . .

Greg Long of San Clemente is the defending champion. . . .

Tom Lasorda, asked Saturday at a fundraiser benefiting the Toberman Neighborhood Center in San Pedro to name his all-time favorite Dodger: “Mike Scioscia.” . . .

Scioscia was seated next to him.

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jerome.crowe@latimes.com