The absence of key players like Obama has cast a shadow, as has the relative failure of the 1997 "Kyoto Protocol" on limiting greenhouse gases, which was set in motion at the 1992 Rio summit.
Seeing him in person next to the actor who created him in our imaginations made that excellent actor (how often does a Hollywood actor play a mastermind and actually come off as that smart?) look like a relative shadow.
Meanwhile, the quarterbacks could never escape the shadow of baseball as pitchers like former Cubs star Mark Prior work out at the same facility and occasionally play receiver for the football stars.
The subsequent US-led war on terror saw lengthy conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq and burned phrases like Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib onto the international conscience, as the shadow of Islamist militancy continues its spread across the globe.