ATLANTA , Ga. -- Into the history books they go, the winners and losers.
For Dallas, a second consecutive Super Bowl victory, tying the Cowboys with three other back-to-back winners. For Buffalo, a fourth consecutive loss that stands alone in NFL annals.
For Dallas, the accolades, the trophy, the ring. For Buffalo, disdain, pity and an ache that won't quit.
The scoreboard read 30-13, but it lied. Closer, so much closer in the first half; no contest in the second, when the Cowboys roared from behind with 24 unanswered points.
"It hasn't sunk in yet," said running back Emmitt Smith, who rushed for 132 yards and won the game MVP trophy. "I know one thing: Our mission is now completed. We came into this season with the intent of getting back here and doing the same things we did today."
As did the Bills, from the standpoint of getting back. They hadn't planned on losing again.
At least they didn't lose by more points than last year. Defeated by one in 1991, 13 in '92 and 35 in '93, who knew what sort of blowout lay ahead against a Dallas team not materially different than the one that torched them 52-17 a year ago in sunny Pasadena, Calif.?
No blowout apparent at the start. A first half to raise the spirit of any Buffalonian encouraged the sympathy vote that grew all of Super Bowl week and infected the 72,817 stuffed into the Georgia Dome. But ultimately? Defeat and the suffering it entails.
"You could seem them hurting," Cowboys wide receiver Michael Irvin said. "I hurt for them. But we accomplished something. No team ever started 0-2 and won the Super Bowl."
None until this one. None had won the Super Bowl with the NFL's leading rusher until Dallas, powered by Smith, did it last year. And did it again this year, despite Smith missing the first two games (both losses) in a contract dispute. The Cowboys joined Green Bay, Pittsburgh and San Francisco as the only teams to win the big one back-to-back.
Likewise for coach Jimmy Johnson, who joined Vince Lombardi, Chuck Noll and Bill Walsh with consecutive Super Bowl triumphs. What a far cry from that 1989, the first for Johnson and his hair in Dallas, when the lead-footed and talent-thin Cowboys finished 1-15.
Then the turnaround began. Speed and quickness dominated the defense. Smith became the offense's heart and soul. Troy Aikman proved himself a top-notch passer - a golden arm attached to a quarterback willing to hang in the pocket and take the hits to make a big play. Irvin kept growing as a go-to guy, and the Cowboys regained their prominence.
The Cowboys that Tom Landry built won two Super Bowls, too. Not in a row, though. In 1972 and 1978. They went five times in Landry's 29 seasons, earned the nickname America's Team. They've gone twice in Johnson's five and won both, with 700 million folks around the globe tuned in.
The World's Team? Maybe. Their faces can't be anything but familiar and their lives a-jumble with the spoils victory belongs.
"I'm not planning on sleeping tonight," the normally low-keyed Aikman said. "I'll be going on some morning TV shows, I've got family to see, and it'll be a long night. But I've got five months to sleep."
About 5 1/2 months, actually, until the Cowboys reconvene in Austin, Texas, for training camp. They'll at least have something to defend. The Bills report in mid-July to remote Fredonia, N.Y., and what can they threaten us with now?
Another Super Bowl loss? Another Super Bowl blowout? A Squint at the Quint? How about a remake of Notorious with the Bills in the starring role?
"We're an awfully good football. We've earned our way to the Super Bowl every time," special teams ace Steve Tasker said. "Part of our identity for years to come probably will be that we were 0-4 in Super Bowls."
Probably? Is there any irony at all that the Bills lost their fourth in a row the day after Bud Grant, Minnesota's coach through four Super Bowl defeats (more appropriately spaced) was named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame?
Given that Buffalo made it four years running, why not the Cowboys? They're young, they're tough, and they too show resilience. They trailed in this contest 13-6 at halftime before big plays and their big-play players made the Bills lose any notion of escaping with their guts intact.
Super Bowl XXIX takes place in Miami, where Johnson forged his reputation as a college coach and won a national championship. Winning again, and winning there, surely holds allure. But the Cowboys won't proclaim themselves long-term tenants of the penthouse.
"It's one year at a time," Smith said. "It's kind of premature to say what kind of a team we're going to have next year. We have a number of free agents. I know one thing. We'll have Troy, we'll have Michael, and myself will be back."
Defensive end Charles Haley, on two championship teams with the 49ers and on four Super Bowl winners, also put up the stop sign.
"We can't be a dynasty until we are in this game and win a couple of times more," he said. "We are a good team now because we came back and won it today, but we have to win it at least four times to be considered a real dynasty.
"If we can keep this bunch together, then we have a chance. Kind of like when I was with the 49ers when we had (Jerry) Rice and (Roger) Craig and those guys and were able to keep them. Then maybe we can become a dynasty. Not yet."
The other dynasty - the one ruling the AFC for the last four seasons - can't look at its future quite the same way. This Bills team started winning in 1988 and captured the AFC East title six of the last seven seasons. But quarterback Jim Kelly turns 35 in two weeks, tackle Howard Ballard, cornerback Nate Odomes and Tasker become unrestricted free agents Feb. 17, and the team's makeup can't help but undergo some alterations.
Yet the dream won't die. Four defeats only nourish it.
"I don't want to finish second or third," Kelly said. "I feel bad. I've been here four times. It's frustrating. It really is. But I've got a couple of years left. Don't count me out yet."
