TORONTO

It was a fumble the football aficionado never saw coming. Poor Mayor Robert Bruce Ford got sacked in the witness stand and didn’t even realize he’d lost the ball.

With his job on the line, his testimony before Justice Charles Hackland was key. His loyal brother Doug looking on anxiously, Ford had to convince the court that he didn’t knowingly violate the municipal conflict-of-interest act when instead of recusing himself, he took part in a vote that reversed an earlier council sanction that he must repay $3,150 he’d raised from lobbyists for his personal football charity using city hall letterhead.

Is that enough to get him booted out of office? I hardly think so. But here we are just the same.

Taking the stand in a dark navy suit, the mayor was surprisingly cool — a change of shirt at the noon hour likely helped — polite and passionate about the work he does to raise money for inner city football players. “I’ll do anything for these kids. I’ll fund raise money so they can play football, get an education and hopefully move on to university,” he insisted.

Which is great. But this isn’t about the kids.

Few but his most virulent enemies doubt Ford is evangelical about youth football. No one is questioning the worthiness of his cause or his good deeds.

This is about rules and whether he knowingly defied them.

Not only is it bad optics, but asking city lobbyists for private donations — no matter how great the charity — violates the city’s code of conduct. As integrity commissioner Janet Leiper ruled back in August 2010, people in positions of power must ensure their private fund raising doesn’t appear to be relying on the proverbial “muscle” of their political office.

Rules, shmules. Ford still doesn’t think he’s done anything wrong. “I don’t believe I ever had a conflict of interest with my football foundation,” he repeated again and again. “To this day, I do not understand why I have to pay it back personally. I didn’t touch the money.”

So when it came to another vote in February of this year, where council was considering letting him off the hook after he still hadn’t repaid the cash almost two years later, he didn’t recognize that it would be wise to excuse himself since he would gain financially if the vote went his way.

Instead, the mayor insisted the vote didn’t fall into his rather unique interpretation of conflict of interest — that there’s only a conflict if both he and the city benefit — a mantra he recited so often that soon the packed courtroom, the largest at 361 University Ave., began to chuckle:

“It takes two parties to have a conflict,” he maintained repeatedly. “This did not benefit the city at all. This is just my personal issue.”

Is it naivete or arrogance? Does he really not understand the meaning of conflict-of-interest or does he simply believe he can operate by his own code of conduct?

Even now, with his job at stake, Ford still doesn’t seem to get it.

Earlier in his day-long testimony, he boasted that he’s so committed to the Rob Ford Football Foundation that wherever he goes, he gives out his business card and tries to get donations. “I target anyone and everyone,” he declared proudly.

Much later, in a lull during a rather bullying cross examination, lawyer Clayton Ruby asked if he could see one of these cards. Ford happily dug one out.

Ruby knew it was a “gotcha” long before the poor mayor did. It was his city business card identifying him as mayor, with the city hall logo and the city hall phone number — exactly the kind of letterhead Ford was explicitly told almost three years ago that he cannot use to solicit donations.

“You don’t think there’s a problem using your mayor card to raise funds for a private program, the football foundation?” Ruby asked

The oblivious Ford may have dropped the ball but he was still lumbering across the field, certain as ever that his good intentions trump the playbook.

“No, the program does a phenomenal job,” Ford replied sincerely. “It’s saving kids’ lives.”