What the papers said about . . . the Super Bowl

'Two Super Bowls ago, someone hid Thurman Thomas's helmet under a bench before the start of the game and he missed the first two plays while trying to find it. By the end of this year's Super Bowl, Thomas would have gladly traded places with that misplaced helmet. There wasn't a hole big enough on the sideline for him to crawl into.' International Herald Tribune

'Thurman Thomas sat with his head in his hands as time ran out on the Buffalo Bills' fourth failed attempt to win the Super Bowl. Remarkably, he didn't fumble it.' Today

'A Super Bowl story that maintained its suspense for at least the first half . . . was eventually determined by the simplest of plot lines. In the end the Buffalo Bills could not catch 22. Emmit Smith, who wears that number, was the key performer in another superb display by the Dallas Cowboys.' The Independent

'For offending the gods, Sisyphus was condemned to push a large rock to the top of a steep hill, from where it kept rolling back. The Buffalo Bills must have greatly displeased someone.' The Guardian

'One crocodile-skinned Buffalo player offered a catchphrase for the Bills' latest new beginning. 'Let's make it five in '95,' he said. There was never a more empty slogan.' The Daily Telegraph

'Dallas like to think they are America's Team: glamorous, brash, successful again. But the Bills fit the description better. Everything is smooth on the surface but scratch the veneer, examine the fabric in crisis and a sea of instability and turmoil, fundamental weakness, is exposed. Curiously, their very fallibility redeemed the game, gave it a theme many others have lacked and hauled it out of the mire of commercialism in which the Super Bowl is drowning.' The Times

'Smith was like a man running down a street during an earthquake, evading falling masonry with a series of mesmeric movements.' Daily Express

'4th and Heartbreak for Buffalo.' New York Times

'Dubbed 'The Breakthrough Bowl' by some Bills players, the NFL title game was no different than Buffalo's first three ill-fated dances with Super Bowl destiny the past three years - a heartbreak bowl.' Atlanta

Journal-Constitution

'The Super Bowl? The HyperBole, more like.' Daily Mail