The Moment: Rob Ford’s football team brings home the trophy

For Coach Ford, the Don Bosco Eagles’ walloping of the Senator O’Connor Blues, 26-14, was a kind of vindication. Ever since Ford took office, his critics have pilloried him for putting his high school coaching ahead of his duties as mayor. Perhaps that’s because Ford, in a brief moment of sanity on the campaign trail, had said he would give up the gig once elected. Then, of course, not only did Ford stay on with the Eagles, but he notoriously availed himself of city staff and vehicles, ducked out of a libel trial and missed more than a few meetings, all in the service of high school athletics. Today, he responds with incredulity to the very suggestion that he miss a game or two, insisting that no one but him is capable of corralling the rambunctious boys—a claim as dubious as it is hard to disprove. Taxpayers, who wished Ford would get back to the business of, you know, governing a city, began to throw up their hands in defeat. When the Eagles actually won the Toronto Catholic school football crown, what became blindingly obvious is that our lousy mayor is a damn good coach. If you’re going to ignore your city for the sake of a football team, it’s nice to bring home the trophy.