Councillor Doug Ford is used to taking dozens of daily phone calls, but there was something strange about the flood of messages he received Thursday morning.
Upon further inspection he found they all had the same 504 area code - New Orleans - and he quickly gleaned what all the fuss was about.
On Thursday morning an article on theScore.com quoted the brother of Mayor Rob Ford saying he thought Toronto had a shot at wooing the NFL's Saints away from New Orleans.
Pig-skin fans in the bayou were not impressed. Despite rumours Mr. Ford had heard, the Saints will be based firmly in New Orleans for the foreseeable future.
"I think every last person in Louisiana but the governor himself called me up," said Mr. Ford.
He quickly issued an apology.
"I just wanted to let all the folks in New Orleans and Louisiana know there were no hard feelings," he said. "By no means would I want to take a team off of New Orleans."
The first-term councillor also mentioned Jacksonville, Oakland and San Diego as NFL teams that could possibly move to Toronto. He heard no complaints from fans in those cities.
Mr. Ford has been very open in his desire to land an NFL team in Toronto, even if the city's current football stadium, Rogers Centre, is too small for the professional American game.
He has four alternative sites in mind: the waterfront Port Lands, the site of the old stadium on the CNE grounds, Woodbine and Downsview.
Talking about football on the Port Lands, Mr. Ford let's his imagination run.
"Imagine a stadium at the Port Lands with the world's largest Ferris wheel, restaurants, ice cream shops, 200 acres of parkland, iconic buildings," he said. "There would have to be a wow factor. We would have to get transit down there, a monorail system."
The scenario is a long way off. The NFL has to deal with ownership issues in Los Angeles before it can even consider moving teams.
Mr. Ford says he knows of four possible ownership groups - all Canadian - eager to bid on a team, but first they have to convince the NFL that Toronto deserves a team.
"It's going to be hard for them to keep ignoring North America's fourth-largest market," he said. "We're not demanding a team. That would be a mistake. We know that's completely up to the NFL. We would consider it a privilege if we got one."