I am not going to dress this up. The Cowboys beat my Bills twice, back to back, in Super Bowls XXVII and XXVIII. I was old enough to feel the second one fully. So when I tell you Dallas is one of the great Super Bowl franchises, understand it costs me something to say it.

Five trophies, eight trips

Dallas has been to eight Super Bowls and won five. Roger Staubach and the early-1970s teams took VI and lost a few hard ones to Pittsburgh. Then the Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin machine of the 1990s won XXVII, XXVIII and XXX in four seasons. XXVII was the one where we turned the ball over nine times and they won 52-17. XXVIII was 30-13, the night a James Washington fumble return broke the game open. I remember both better than I would like.

Credit, paid in full

That 1990s Dallas team was as good as the decade produced, and they were good when it counted, which my team never quite was. Cowboys fans, you have not been back to a Super Bowl since the nineties and the wait has its own sting now. But five rings is five rings. I watched two of them get won at our expense. I am allowed to remember. You are allowed to celebrate.