Toronto Mayor Rob Ford ignores CFL’s request and attends playoff game

You can’t tell Toronto Mayor Rob Ford what to do.

Don’t even bother trying. It will just blow up in your face.

Mark Cohon, the commissioner of the Canadian Football League, found out the hard way Sunday when Ford showed up at a playoff game between the Toronto Argonauts and Hamilton Tiger-Cats despite a request from the CFL’s head honcho that he stay away.

Ford has recently admitted to smoking crack cocaine and drinking excessively. And he’s been accused of pressuring a female employee for oral sex, an allegation Ford vehemently denied while using vulgar language on live TV -- and while wearing an Argonauts jersey.

Argonauts Chief Executive Chris Rudge called Ford’s situation “an unfortunate situation for the city.” Cohon went a step further, publicly suggesting that the embattled mayor not attend Sunday’s Eastern Conference final.

But Ford disregarded the commissioner’s request and showed up at the Rogers Centre in Toronto a little after halftime wearing the same customized No. 12 Argonauts jersey with “Mayor Ford” written across the back.

Was this a deliberate act of defiance by the mayor? Perhaps, although maybe he just had a lot of extra time on his hands since the Toronto City Council had stripped him of some of his powers two days earlier.

Fans clogged the aisle while snapping photos and exchanging handshakes with the die-hard Argonauts fan, who was seen laughing and holding up a crude replica of the Grey Cup, the CFL’s championship trophy.

Unfortunately for Ford, the real Cup won’t be coming back to his city. The 2012 champion Argos lost, 36-24, meaning the Tiger-Cats will face Saskatchewan in the Grey Cup title game -- and that Ford will have no reason to attend.

Somewhere out there Cohen has got to be breathing a huge sigh of relief.

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