With all of the complaints current-generation sports video gamers have about annoying glitches, unrealistic player performance, and other “cheese” sometimes it is important to remember how far we've come. Even Kraft wishes they could make “cheese” like this.

#5. The Fake Field Goal (Joe Montana II Sports Talk Football, Sega Genesis, 1991)

Running the Fake FG against the computer resulted in horrible coverage and an all-out blitz by the CPU. Even the first sports video game announcer couldn’t believe how effective this play was. Compounding this play's effectiveness was the almost complete lack of responsiveness by user-controlled players. We’ve come a long way.

#4. Give the Ball to Bo Jackson (Tecmo Bowl, NES, 1989)

Three top-five entries either makes Tecmo Bowl the king of money plays or the king of cheese. One of the biggest crimes attributable to the Tecmo programmers was the Bo Jackson running play.

Giving the ball to Bo Jackson in the original Tecmo Bowl was declared illegal in my neighborhood. If you chose a pass play on defense, Jackson was not only good for at least 20 yards, but if you didn’t have three defenders available to hit him almost simultaneously, odds were he was taking it to the house. He could throw any defensive player in the game -- irrespective of size -- 20 yards through the air in any direction if that defender dared to attempt an arm tackle. Diving tackles worked better, but the defender still had a good chance of bouncing off Bo clear across the field. But worst of all, he could run out an entire quarter on one carry.

What really made this play and what made Bo Jackson the best video-game athlete in history was Jackson’s abilities late in the season. The A.I. in Tecmo Bowl became progressively more difficult, so the later in the season you played a team the better its players were. If you were unfortunate enough to play the Raiders late in the season, even calling the right play on Jackson couldn’t save you, as he was more than capable of throwing your entire team completely off the football field before breaking loose for 99 yards.

If only they tracked stats in this game.

#3. The Deep Bomb to Jerry Rice (Tecmo Super Bowl, NES, 1991)

Any play that allowed you to gain 70-plus yards with little to no effort has to be included in any money play discussion. Execution was as simple as running Montana back as far as possible, waiting until the last minute and bombing it down the field to Jerry Rice. Coverage was not an issue as even when Rice was double covered Montana was deadly accurate for up to 100 yards. Rice was more than capable of going up to get the ball in double and sometimes triple coverage.

The only thing preventing the deep bomb between Montana to Rice from being ranked higher is the fact that you could stop this by picking the right play on defense. Imagine how deadly this play could be if you had hot routes or audibles!

#2. The Gliding Corner Three Pointer (Double Dribble, NES, 1987)

If you thought Steve Kerr was deadly from behind the arc, any player from the 1987 Boston Frogs roster makes him look like Shaquille O’Neal. Shooting a 3-pointer from the top left corner while gliding out of bounds was automatic, even sometimes banking off the backboard (from an impossible angle). All that was needed to execute this successfully was to keep an eye on the cheerleader's pom pom.

The Boston Frogs roster was full of super athletes, so it made this play even more difficult to defend, as it was rumored that all five starters recorded 60-inch verticals at the '87 pre-draft combine. This money play turned all Double Dribble games into a sweet spot race, where if the player was savvy enough to get airborne without turning the ball over, it was curtains for the defense. Frogs players were more than capable of taking off near the top of the key and gliding to the land where threes are promised.

#1. The 10 Yard Roger Craig In Route (Tecmo Bowl, NES, 1989)

When you take into consideration the play mechanics of the original Tecmo Bowl and the competitive environment created by the first football title with real player names, the infamous Roger Craig 10 yard in route is the undisputed king of money plays. First, some background for those who have either forgotten or are too young to have played the most "sophisticated" rock, paper, scissors game of all time.

All offensive playbooks had four plays consisting of two runs and two passes for most teams, while some teams had three passes and one run. On defense, if you managed to pick the same play as the offense, you could be assured perfect coverage as well as one of the meanest pass rushes ever known to man.

So, as a defensive coordinator, you had a one in four chance of unleashing the Purple People Eating Steel Curtain on your opponent on any given down. If you weren't above pulling a Belicheat and sneaking a peek at your opponent's D-pad, your odds of busting up the offense's play in the backfield increased exponentially. In addition to the ultimate pass rush, a pass to a covered receiver resulted in an interception 99.9 percent of the time.

How does an offense respond to such fearsome defenses and a one in four chance that your entire offensive line will be tossed aside like used Kleenex? By playing with the San Francisco 49ers and pulling out the best money play of all time, a shotgun pass where Roger Craig runs a 10 yard in route.

What makes this play the best money play of all time, is the fact that it absolutely, positively could not be stopped under any circumstances, and everyone knew it. It gave the offense the freedom to call pretty much whatever it wanted on first and second downs, knowing that it could easily get 20 yards by running this play on third and fourth down. Montana was in a shotgun and Craig’s route was perfectly timed to allow completion of the pass even when the defense anticipated the play and called it.

But the biggest factor of all is the fact that even if you took control of a defender and attempted to cover Craig yourself, the Tecmo Football gods would move your player out of the way so that the pass could be completed. So not only did the A.I. not stand a chance, but you couldn't even stop it with good stick skills when you knew it was coming.

So the next time you see someone running the WR Direct Snap or WR Double Pass, be thankful for how far we've come, even though we still have a long way to go.