They’re Not Allowed to State the Obvious

Sometimes, there is an elephant in the room during postgame news conferences.

The pachyderm is present when there is an obvious question on the mind of almost all in the room -- the reporters, the athlete, and the athlete’s minder, or public relations representative, if you will.

It happened earlier this week in Paris at a tennis tournament. Lleyton Hewitt, coming off a very public termination of his long engagement to another tennis star, Kim Clijsters, appeared before reporters for the first time since the breakup.

They were asked to stick to tennis questions, which reminded Bruce Wilson of the Melbourne (Australia) Herald Sun of a hilarious episode of the old British sitcom, “Fawlty Towers”: “ ‘Don’t mention the war!’ John Cleese tells his staff when a party of German tourists arrives at his hotel.

“This time it was, ‘Don’t mention ... ‘ “

And no, Clijsters’ name never came up. Nor did the war.

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Trivia time: How many times did Bobby Hull lead the NHL in scoring?

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Tooth decay: There is that cliche about one man’s trash being another’s treasure, but we’re not quite sure hockey legend Hull’s recent online garage sale lands in that category.

Media reports had Hull’s false teeth up for auction on the website juteaus.com. And, incredibly, there still is a picture of Hull’s partial plate, circa 1959.

Apparently, though, there’s a limited market for used teeth. The winning bid was $575.96.

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Inclusive answer: The Green Bay Packers have this weekend off, which apparently is a mixed blessing for quarterback Brett Favre.

He has jammed his throwing hand, sprained his right thumb, been knocked out of games with a concussion and a softball-sized leg bruise, and winced in pain as his left shoulder dislocated during a game.

He also has been coping with the recent death of his brother-in-law and his wife has been diagnosed with breast cancer.

Asked whether having a Sunday off would be a good thing, Favre told Associated Press, “I think it will be good and bad, emotionally and physically.”

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Working girls: Winning wasn’t the goal for a group of women playing soccer last month in Guatemala.

The team, the Stars of the Tracks, was made up of prostitutes trying to achieve better working conditions. It lost, 3-1, to a team of policewomen. This sounded almost like a late-night movie on Lifetime.

“We get much more attention from the public, now that our faces are known; people come up and congratulate us and tell us to keep up the good work,” Valeria told Reuters.

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Trivia answer: Three times. The last time was the 1965-66 season.

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And finally: Owner Mark Cuban of the Dallas Mavericks to the Dallas Morning News, on the curious scheduling conflict for the opening of the NBA season:

“I won’t say what I really think about the genius that started the season on election day, since it’s probably the same person that started the season on Halloween in previous years.

“There’s only a presidential election once every four years. We start on that day. Genius.”