01:00 AM EST on Sunday, February 13, 2005

1933-46 BEARS

YEARS: 14.

CHAMPIONSHIPS: 5.

APPEARANCES IN CHAMPIONSHIP GAMES: 8.

1981-94 49ERS

YEARS: 15.

CHAMPIONSHIPS: 5.

APPEARANCES IN CHAMPIONSHIP GAMES: 5. (NOTE: Appeared in nine NFC title games in this span.)

Strangely, these are the only two NFL teams that fit the criteria: multiple championships won by different generations of players over a reasonable period of time. Teams such as the 1950s Browns, 1960s Packers, 1970s Steelers and 1990s Cowboys all had one core set of players over their title runs, and their success ended when the core disintegrated.

On the surface, the Bears -- with more title-game appearances in a slightly shorter span of time -- would appear to have the edge over the 49ers. But the NFL of the 1930s and '40s was a beer league compared to the NFL of the '80s and '90s, and San Francisco's dominance in its time period was a far greater achievement.

Honorable mention: The Cowboys won five crowns and made 10 championship-game appearances over a 30-year period (1966-95). But there was a 15-year gap (1977 to '92) between titles three and four, and in the late 1980s the Cowboys degenerated into one of the worst teams in football. The super teams of the '90s had no connection to the successful teams of the '70s, and thus Dallas is excluded from the list.

-- ART MARTONE