Passengers had to leave two TTC buses mid-route Thursday so that Mayor Rob Ford’s high school football team could be picked up from an afternoon game in Etobicoke.

A TTC bus was requested to pick up the Don Bosco Eagles from Father Henry Carr Catholic Secondary School after a game.

When that bus had trouble finding Henry Carr’s football field, a second TTC bus was taken off its route and dispatched to pick up the students. Ford then called TTC CEO Andy Byford’s cellphone to ask about the delay, according to reports.

But TTC spokesperson Brad Ross insisted Friday that Ford simply wanted to know when the bus would arrive and wasn’t demanding anything from the TTC.

In a series of tweets, Ross said the TTC was just complying with a police request to send a bus to the school.

“We complied with a TPS request. The mayor made no such request,” Ross said in response to another Twitter user.

“We regret that customers were inconvenienced, but these are operational calls TTC makes,” he said in another tweet.

There were reports Thursday that police requested a TTC bus after the football game ended in a fight.

But a spokesperson for the Toronto Catholic School Board told CP24 there was no altercation between coaches or players. John Yan said a Henry Carr coach just became agitated about a referee’s call.

Because the game ended about an hour early, the regular school bus wasn’t available and it was cold and rainy out, a TTC bus was called to pick up the Don Bosco players and take them back to their own school, Yan said.

Designated “school resource” police officers, which are stationed at every high school in Ontario, called the TTC bus in, Yan said.

Ford caused a controversy Thursday when he left a lengthy city council meeting for about two hours to attend the football game. He defended the absence to reporters, saying he made “a commitment” to the team and was not going to change.