Todd Stordahl and the WOA still on the hot seat after being sued by the pink whistle football referees.

You’ll recall that members of the PNFOA got in trouble for using pink whistles with their uniforms last October as part of a fundraiser and awareness event for Susan G. Komen for the Cure, an organization that advocates for breast cancer treatment and research. They used pink whistles during games and donated their game checks. The WOA commissioner, Todd Stordahl, got his panties in a bunch for reasons no one can quite figure out, except that he just seemed to take issue with the idea that the PNFOA was doing a good deed on its own without getting his permission. Of course, once this got out, public reaction was swift and negative, and he was forced to back down, at least publicly. “The whole thing has been blown so far out of proportion,” he said at the time.

However, in early May, after nursing a grudge all those months, Stordahl brought the hammer down on the group, taking away playoff games from the officials and putting them on probation. In other words, sit down, shut up, and don’t cross me again.

The officials decided they’d had enough, and sued both the WOA and the WIAA, which has control over the officials organization. Honestly, could anyone not see this coming?

“The WOA changed the rules in the middle of the game,” said a PNFOA statement on its web site. “None of the WOA rules in place at the time of the ‘pink whistles’ event regulated whistle color or what charities the PNFOA could support. Nothing in the WOA Constitution or Bylaws said the WOA could control members’ community events. And nothing in the WOA Constitution or Bylaws gave WOA Commissioner Todd Stordahl the power to create new rules at all. But three weeks after the PNFOA officials had started wearing pink whistles, and three days before the final “Give Back” weekend when PNFOA officials would donate their pay to Susan G. Komen for the Cure, Mr. Stordahl created a new rule that pink whistles violated the officials’ uniform code.”

The WOA discipline included an additional year of probation because the PNFOA refused to give a one-year suspension to every member who had talked to the press or commented on a blog after the issue blew up in the WOA’s face last October. Clearly, what really stuck in Stordahl’s craw was the public thrashing he had to take after making such a big deal over the pink whistle issue in the first place. So why not go ahead and double down on his tone-deaf cluelessness?

According to the statement, the suit seeks:

(1) to enjoin and prohibit infringements on PNFOA officials’ First Amendment rights of free speech and free association; (2) to prohibit the WOA and WIAA from violating their own rules, Constitution, and Bylaws; and (3) to allow freedom to contract among all officials statewide and to prohibit the unlawful monopoly arrangements between the WOA and the WIAA, thereby giving officials and schools a choice.

The Susan G. Komen for the Cure event was not the first time PNFOA officials donated their paychecks. Every year the PFNOA gives at least one $500 sportsmanship scholarship to a high school athlete. In 2009, the organization donated $3800 to the family of slain police officer Timothy Brenton.

KIng 5 Report Last October:

Pnfoa Pink Whistle Lawsuit against WOA