from Bruce Arthur of the Toronto Star,
Rob Ford loves sports. Oh, how he loves sports. During that lurid lurching farcical fever dream when he was mayor, 158 of the 535 words in his official City Hall bio talked about football; how he played, how he coached at Don Bosco, how he had a football foundation, how he coached in the summer, too. Rob Ford, whatever his faults, loved football. And sports.
Maybe that’s why the city council, in another one of its fits of wisdom, appointed the former mayor to the Hockey Hall of Fame’s board of directors, in one of three city-appointed spots. They probably thought, well, we have to put Rob somewhere, because Ford Nation is still a factor in this city. And, the sports thing.
Of course, maybe they remembered the time he got drunk and was abusive to other fans at the Air Canada Centre — he yelled out, “you right-wing Communist bastards,” a little confusingly — before lying about it to several newspapers and then finally admitting, yep, that was me.
Maybe they recalled that the night then-police chief Bill Blair confirmed there was a crack tape, Ford was trick-or-treating in his No. 11 Ford Leafs jersey. Or that the first time he was photographed with Sandro Lisi, his pal, consigliere, driver, and alleged drug dealer who is currently on trial for extortion, it was at a Leafs game, in the same jersey. Or that Don Cherry attended the mayoral inauguration in his pinkest suit and told onlookers, half-prophetically, “I say he’s going to be the greatest mayor this city has ever seen as far as I’m concerned. And put that in your pipe, you left-wing kooks.” Or that late-night talk-show host Craig Ferguson once cracked, “The real reason police knew Ford was smoking crack is that he predicted that the Leafs would win the Stanley Cup.”
added 10:06am, from Lance Hornby and Joe Warmington of the Toronto Sun,
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