Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

Rob Ford Now A Part Of The Hockey World

04/05/2015 at 8:02am EDT

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.”

continued

added 10:06am, from Lance Hornby and Joe Warmington of the Toronto Sun,

“Despicable ... an embarrassment ... negligent” were some of the comments. But board vice-chair Jim Gregory called the backlash “terribly unfair to Rob.”

Gregory, a former NHL executive and general manager of the Leafs, explained that Ford was being added for his business expertise, one of three councillors the city can nominate for the board.

“He’s replacing a councillor whose term was up - Doug Holyday - who had done a terrific job for many years and truly cared about the Hall,” Gregory said. “Doug had been fantatic for us and our hope is that Rob and the other councillors (Mark Grimes of Ward 6 and Doug’s son Stephen Holyday from Ward 3) will be terrific, too. But the Hall has nothing to do with their selection.”

The board also includes current Leafs minority owner Larry Tanenbaum, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly and Montreal Canadiens president Geoff Molson. With business, legal and promotional representation, it operates much the same as the board of a charity or non-profit organization.

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About Kukla's Korner Hockey

Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

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