( CNN ) -- `` I do not use crack cocaine , nor am I an addict of crack cocaine . '' Those words are n't what might normally be expected from the mayor of Canada 's largest city . But little is normal nowadays for Rob Ford . Eight days ago , Gawker and the Toronto Star published stories stating their reporters had seen a cell-phone video showing Ford , as the Star described it , `` inhaling from what appears to be a glass crack pipe . '' Later in the video as described by the Star , an `` incoherent '' man both the Star and Gawker claimed to be Ford ranted on a number of subjects , from Liberal leader Justin Trudeau to the high school football team he coached . Except for a brief comment the next day deriding the stories as `` ridiculous , '' the characteristically voluble Toronto mayor has been quiet -- at the advice of his lawyer , he said then , who advised him `` not to say a word . '' Until Friday , when he made a statement . In his statement , Ford alluded to the end of his time as a coach for the Don Bosco Eagles high school team , as well as the departure of his mayoral chief of staff Mark Towhey . He did n't elaborate on either relationship . Nor did he admit to any wrongdoing -- saying there was no real proof that he did anything wrong . `` I can not comment on a video that I have never seen or does not exist , '' Ford said , referring to the 90 seconds of footage that two Star reporters and one Gawker journalist claimed to have seen but that has n't been aired on TV or posted online . `` It is most unfortunate , very unfortunate , that my colleagues and the great people of this city have been exposed to the fact that I have been judged by the media without any evidence , '' the mayor said . Amid the media firestorm , Ford insisted that he 's still hard at work for the people of Toronto , as a conservative leader focused on making the city government more efficient and effective . `` We 're continuing to fight for the taxpayers every day and it 's business as usual at City Hall , '' he said . His demeanor Friday was markedly different from the man Star reporters described in the video , which the newspaper claimed was shot last winter . In it , the Star journalists wrote that `` an off-camera speaker ... goads the clearly impaired mayor , '' who at one point seems to mutter , `` Everyone expects me to be right-wing . '' The newspaper said that the mayor appears to refer to the players on his Don Bosco football team as `` just f -- -ing minorities . '' The video ends , according to the Star , when the cell phone starts to ring . `` That phone better not be on , '' the mayor says , according to the newspaper . Doug Ford , a city councilor , stood behind his brother on Friday -- and lashed out at the news reports . Echoing the mayor , Doug Ford questioned the Star for its `` accusation of a video that does not exist or we have n't seen . '' The city councilor had especially harsh words for Gawker , accusing it of dealing `` with a bunch of extortionists '' and unfairly tarnishing Somalis who live in Toronto by claiming Somali drug dealers were behind the video . `` I think it 's disgusting , '' Doug Ford said .
NEW : Toronto 's deputy mayor rejects the news reports , calling some of them ` ` disgusting '' Toronto 's mayor speaks at length for first time since being accused of smoking crack . Meanwhile , the Toronto Star reporters say they saw video showing Rob Ford doing cocaine . Ford denies using crack cocaine ; says he has n't seen the video , does n't know it exists .