The NFL referees blew another handful of calls in yesterday's games, leaving me wondering what has collectively happened to them. While costing the Detroit Lions a win might not get much splash back, the residue from the Chargers/Broncos game will remain until the end of the season. The NFL cannot afford to have their referees blowing games as they are now.

In recent years the NFL referees have actually been the most respected across the major American sports landscape. Baseball and its umpires have been routinely roasted, especially after many obviously missed homerun calls led to the limited use of replay. The NBA has of course endured the Tim Donaghy scandal as well as other incidents, such as the Tim Duncan being tossed from a game for laughing issue by Joey Crawford. It seemed like a longtime since the Budweiser commercials featuring vision impaired NFL referees. Not anymore.

The main complaint against officiating in the NFL, until this season, has not been the actual NFL referees but the calls they are forced to make. Well intentioned rules meant to protect the quarterback make it nearly impossible to make a play on him. And the NFL head office doesn't help either when they suspend somebody making a hard, but clean play, as happened when Anquan Boldin went down a few weeks ago.

But this season calls are being missed by NFL referees every single weekend. Are these guys getting old or getting lazy, or what? And what can be done about the situation to help the referees get their act together? Unfortunately, most solutions open up even more problems. If you review penalty flags thrown by NFL referees, can you review plays where nothing was called? All of the sudden every play in every NFL game can be reviewed. That won't work.

I think the best solution to fix the whole NFL referee debacle that the 2008 season has become is to open up a limited review process of penalties. There will only be a review of a penalty flag thrown if the play ended up in a score or a change of possession. And that change of possession includes failed fourth down attempts as well. Non-calls really can't be reviewed, so the NFL referees should be more inclined to throw a flag and have it reviewed and overturned. And this won't be done by a coaches challenge system, but rather an automatic upstairs booth review system.

This might not be a great solution, but if I see another NFL referee cost another game this season I might freak out, something has to be done and this might be a good start.