Former Toronto mayoral candidate Karen Stintz wants to trade transit for touchdowns as the new commissioner of the Canadian Football League.

The former TTC chair told the Star on Friday she would love to replace Mark Cohon, who announced Wednesday he will not seek a third term as CFL boss.

For many Torontonians used to seeing Stintz handle political footballs this will seem like a Hail Mary pass out of city hall.

But Stintz said she has been thinking about the position for a while, even as she ran for mayor in a campaign she ended Thursday.

“I grew up with dad, who is from Baltimore, and grew up with football,” she said. “I started watching the (NFL) Baltimore Colts, but then they moved to Indianapolis, so then I watched the (short-lived CFL) Baltimore Stallions, and then Baltimore got the (NFL) Ravens.”

“I grew up with the NFL but last year I had season’s tickets for the Argos and I’ve been to two Grey Cups.”

A commemorative 99th Grey Cup football — a gala dinner centrepiece that Stintz won — has a prominent place of honour in her council office.

“I’ve long thought about what a great job it would be to have . . . ,” Stintz said. “I see a unique opportunity for the CFL finding a (new) home (stadium) for the Argos, making sure they stay in Toronto, and because the CFL is expanding — a new team in Ottawa and (potentially) another out East — it’s a new time for the league.”

Stintz, a city councillor for the past 11 years, acknowledged she is an “unlikely candidate” and assumes the league will approach potential commissioners, rather than waiting for applications.

John Tory, a front-runner in the Toronto mayoral race, is a former CFL commissioner. After Cohon announced his departure, Tory told the Star’s Josh Rubin that the new CFL head must understand sponsorships, the regions, the sports video world and “it would help if they had prior experience in the sports world.”

David Braley, owner of the Toronto Argonauts, told Rubin the new commissioner should have an “understanding of the game of football. Marketing, sales. There’s a lot of things.”

The man Tory wants to replace, Mayor Rob Ford, is famously football obsessed. Stintz has been part of a City Hall NFL pool that includes the mayor and councillors Josh Colle, Paul Ainslie and Joe Mihevc.

“I beat the mayor one year,” Stintz says.

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