Toronto’s sloppy misguided courting of a NFL franchise

For fans of NFL style football north of the US border, you may want to advise Toronto City Councilor Doug Ford to shut the heck up. For the second time this lockout filled off season Ford has run off at the mouth about his city’s desire to land a NFL franchise by bad mouthing one of the 32 franchises in American cities. Ford has a point, Toronto is a far superior market to many in the States that feature a NFL team, but he is not doing his city any favors by continually running off at the mouth.

The first incident came a few weeks ago when he talked about the New Orleans Saints and really showed his ignorance of what was happening in the NFL world. This time he verbally attacked the Jacksonville Jaguars and their inability to draw north of what he claims is 20k fans per home game. The Truth is the Jaguars draw over three times that at every home game, and once again Ford is left looking ignorant of what is happening in the NFL.

More to the point he has likely made an enemy out of Team Teal, a very organized, dedicated group of Jaguars fans. As a guy who has run afoul of this group in the past I can personally say that Mr. Ford does not want this group coming after him. More to the point he should not be running off at the mouth like this when 24 other NFL owners will have to vote to give his city a franchise.

We have seen other sports leagues blacklist guys who have a tendency to run off at the mouth, and even though Ford will not own the team he is doing NFL fans in Toronto no favors. He should quietly get a plan in place, instead of making himself sound pretty stupid by spouting off at the mouth.