Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday has a pithy piece of parting advice for Mayor Rob Ford: “Don’t coach football.”

Holyday, elected as Etobicoke-Lakeshore MPP in the Aug. 1 byelection, didn’t have to think hard when reporters asked him during a city hall visit Friday what wisdom he would offer the embattled mayor.

A stabilizing force in Ford’s often chaotic administration, Holyday has long advised Ford to quit coaching high school football and focus on his day job, amid questions over Ford’s priorities and misuse of city staff and resources.

Ford ignored that advice. In May, Toronto’s Catholic school board banned the mayor from coaching football at any Catholic school in the city, stripping him of his beloved head coaching duties of the Don Bosco Eagles.

That move, in response to Ford’s insistence he saved players from gang life in a “tough area” — an inaccurate portrayal, according to Bosco parents and school officials — followed a much earlier coaching ban at Newtonbrook Secondary School in the public board, over Ford’s outbursts at players.

The mayor told reporters Thursday he has been approached to coach football by three Toronto high schools and said: “Absolutely, I’m considering it.”

Told of the offers, Holyday shook his head and advised Ford: “Yeah, well, don’t take them.”

Holyday, who will cease being a city councillor once his election to Queen’s Park is published in the province’s weekly Ontario Gazette, said Ford has been more focused since the crack video scandal erupted in mid-May — a crisis Holyday impishly called the mayor’s “last little speck of trouble.”

“I think the mayor is more focused now, since he had all that trouble, and he’s more open with the media and he’s calling these regular press conferences,” said Holyday.

Ford, who denies smoking crack and says there is no video of him doing so, has appeared more active and accessible since an initial week-long silence following the Star’s report that such a video exists. However, Ford’s refusal to provide official communications to the Star is tighter than ever.

Holyday smiled and declined to answer when asked if Ford has been “scared straight.”

The newly minted Progressive Conservative MPP said that, at Queen’s Park, he will do everything in his power to get the Liberal government to provide the city-demanded $1.8 billion to help fund a Scarborough subway.

The Kathleen Wynne government insists only $1.48 billion is available after city council asked it to halt work on a fully funded surface rail line, separated from traffic, to replace the Scarborough RT line.

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But it’s a “major problem” if the federal government does not commit significant funds for the three-stop underground extension, Holyday said.

Ottawa has said infrastructure funds are available for transit projects, but it needs to see a specific request from Toronto before it can give an answer.