Chicago ? Two decades and forever. That’s the time span between trips to the Super Bowl for the Chicago Bears and New Orleans Saints.

While various players from each side have been to the NFL’s biggest game with other teams, these are two organizations mired in, well, Super droughts. The last time the Bears played for the league title, it was in January 1986, and the stars were named Payton, Singletary, Hampton and McMahon. The defense was overwhelming and Da Coach, Mike Ditka, was overbearing.

That 21-year hiatus is distressing in Chicago, but it’s also 19 years shorter than the span New Orleans has gone without a Super Bowl trip. Those four decades make up merely all of the Saints’ existence.

Because today’s NFC championship game involves franchises that haven’t enjoyed much success in the Super Bowl era, the celebrations might be just a bit more exuberant.

“Growing up watching the NFL, being such a fan of the sport and the league,” Bears quarterback Rex Grossman said, “it means a great deal to be in this position. I really respect where we are at right now as far as the history of the league. I’m approaching it with a ton of intensity and focus, but not trying to make it bigger than it is. It’s still just a football game we are playing at Soldier Field against the Saints.”

Sure it is. But it’s also the biggest game of the careers of every Bears player except five with previous Super Bowl game experience: wide receiver Muhsin Muhammad; defensive backs Ricky Manning Jr., and Dante Wesley; tackle Fred Miller; and punter Brad Maynard. Backup quarterback Brian Griese was with Denver in 1999, but didn’t get on the field.

“I think experience teaches you a lot, so if you have been in that situation … we have a few, we don’t have many,” said coach Lovie Smith, the defensive coordinator for the 2001 Rams that lost to New England for the NFL title. “But yes, it has to have helped, especially if you’ve been there recently.

“But once you get down to it, gametime we’re going to kick it off and now it’s just another football game. You know the week leading up to it is quite a bit different. But beyond that I don’t see much.”