Mayor Rob Ford took many afternoons off during the high school football season, his internal itineraries suggest.

The season began in early September. Between Sept. 1 and Oct. 26, Ford scheduled a grand total of one meeting or public appearance for later than 1:30 p.m. on a weekday: the Mayor's Ball for the Arts, at 5 p.m. on a Monday in October.

· Related: Mayor Rob Ford’s itineraries (.pdf)

On most weekdays during the season, his itineraries listed nothing at all between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., a “private” appointment at 3:30 p.m. — at which time his Don Bosco Eagles practised in Etobicoke — and another “private” appointment at 5:30 p.m. The itineraries put him down for “calls/events” most weekdays at 7 p.m., but they gave no details about who he was calling or where he was going.

Ford, who said he will “fight tooth and nail” to keep his job after a judge declared his office vacant as of Dec. 10, has not told reporters how much time he has devoted to football as mayor. But in a July speech in which he tried to recruit coaches for other schools, he said coaching requires a major commitment: “Every day from 3 to 6 o’clock for September-October, and depending on how far the team goes in the playoffs, it could go to the end of November.”

The speech, delivered at a fundraiser for his football foundation, was posted on YouTube by an attendee, then taken offline at the insistence of Ford’s mayoral staff, an email obtained by the Star shows. In the speech, Ford also mentioned that a then-aide had helped extensively with his football teams, a possible violation of rules governing the use of city employees.

Ford has been criticized even by staunch allies for sometimes choosing football over his official duties. One regular critic, Councillor Adam Vaughan, calls him a “part-time mayor.” But Ford says he works long hours.

In general, his itineraries from Aug. 1 to Oct. 26, obtained through freedom of information law, were markedly lighter than his itineraries from earlier in the year. Those itineraries were themselves were much lighter than those from the busy first six months of his mayoralty.

In the most recent batch of itineraries, “private” appointments — those not related to Ford’s job as mayor — were the single most common type of activity. There were 69 “private” appointments over 87 days; the word “private” almost never appeared on Ford’s itineraries until this summer.

The new itineraries listed a mere 28 meetings or phone calls with people other than constituents and his own staff. And they listed only 24 public appearances. Among them were the Caribbean Carnival and Taste of the Danforth festivals, a park opening, a plaque presentation, a business luncheon, and two football games.

Unusually for a mayor, Ford has always devoted a significant portion of his time to meetings with individual constituents. He appears to have cut down even on these. Between July and October 2011, Ford booked a remarkable 209 meetings with residents, two per day. Between August and Oct. 26, 2012, by contrast, he booked 13 meetings with residents and 23 other, unspecified, appointments that may have been such meetings.

It is not clear why Ford would have been busier during last year’s football season than this year’s. His spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

Asked Wednesday how the mayor spends his afternoons during football season, his brother, Councillor Doug Ford, said: “Works his back off, that’s what he does, and you know it, too.”

The Star revealed in May that Ford’s itineraries suggested he had significantly trimmed his workload after setting a punishing early pace. In response, Ford said only a fraction of his activities are included on the itineraries.

“When they go for these freedom of information — they might get a tidbit of what’s really going on,” Ford said on his radio show. As evidence, he said he returns 40 to 50 constituent calls per day. He added: “I’m just doing what people want me to do.”

Reporters have filed regular freedom of information requests for Ford’s itineraries because he does not release even a basic weekly list of appearances. His predecessors did.

Ford’s attendance record at council meetings remains far better than David Miller’s was in his last two years in office, though Ford’s has worsened noticeably since the beginning of his term.

Ford missed football practice for his Chicago business mission and to spend two days in court in his conflict of interest case. But he skipped most of an executive committee meeting to coach a scrimmage. Later he missed part of a regular council meeting for a game.

He has vigorously defended his coaching “hobby,” saying he is helping disadvantaged teenagers. And he has claimed that the Eagles would not be able to play if he were not present, even though the Eagles’ Metro Bowl roster lists eight “coaches and support staff” in addition to Ford and a young aide.

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The Eagles lost Tuesday night in the Metro Bowl regional championship. Ford said after the game that he would coach again next year.

“I’m not going to stop coaching. These kids did fantastic. I’m not going to turn my back on these kids,” he said.

Among the people Ford scheduled meetings or phone calls with: Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak, Brampton Conservative MP Parm Gill, Toronto Hydro chief executive Anthony Haines, Toronto Argonauts chief executive Chris Rudge, Liberal MPP and then-minister Eric Hoskins, Canadian Olympic Committee president Marcel Aubut, American casino tycoon Sheldon Adelson, leaders of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, local theatre king David Mirvish, Tridel development executive Steve Upton, the mayor of the small Italian city of Sora, and activist and former boxer Spider Jones.