But Tom Brady and the Patriots have been the pre-eminent team of the decade and by lashing the Broncos' defense for 451 yards, which included a clock-chewing 80-yard drive late in the fourth quarter, they removed the threat of what everyone had come to see: another late-game Tebow rally.
Congratulations to my goddaughter, G. A., on leading such an eminent team and expanding our knowledge.
But on Sunday, the Colts' youth, and the mistakes that usually accompany it in the N.F.L., ensured that any kind of passing of the torch from Tom Brady to Luck, from the pre-eminent A.F.C. team of more than a decade to a team clearly on the rise, would wait just a little longer.
A volley of startling ingenuity in the final against Russia is regarded even by his eminent team-mates as a thing of wonder.
His contribution to the game was aptly summed up by Zito, one of his most eminent team-mates, who said: "When you played the ball as much as he did, the position didn't really matter... Nilton Santos wasn't a defender or a full-back.
He has shown great patience, giving Mircea Lucescu six years to construct a squad that plays intelligent, attacking football, and has supplanted Dynamo Kyiv as Ukraine's pre-eminent team, winning four of the past six titles.
And now that the sport's pre-eminent team has been shorn of its Kallisus (not sure how that neologism should be pronounced but I'm happy to take suggestions below the line), that's a tour that Australia can justifiably approach with great expectations.
The Tigers, by far the most decorated English rugby club with 10 domestic titles, have begun to fall on hard times over the past couple of years, having not won the league since 2013; their star at the summit of the Aviva Premiership's pre-eminent team's eclipsed by the likes of Saracens and more recently Exeter Chiefs.
It brings together a team of eminent scholars to explore the philosophical issues raised by biology.
It has taken 11 years and a team of eminent women to bring this story to the stage.
