Another great thing about sports, #1,357.

I love how athletes and coaches will say “we shocked the world” and everybody lets them get away with it. I’m watching the Tennessee-Vanderbilt basketball game Wednesday night and Commodores coach Bryce Drew told his team before overtime began “we’re gonna shock the world.” Granted, Vandy was up against the No. 1-ranked Vols, but does he really think that somebody was going to wake up Wednesday morning in Senegal and say “I’m shocked that Vandy beat Tennessee?”

Just a side note — Vandy was only an 8-point underdog.

Has there EVER been a sporting event that shocked the world? When Buster Douglas beat Mike Tyson, were there people in Nepal who couldn’t go to work that day because they were so stunned?

How about the U.S. beating Russia in hockey in the 1980 Winter Olympics … did that cause widespread panic in Ecuador?

It is often thought that Muhammad Ali is to blame for this. But like Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca, he really didn’t say what people thought he said. Ali actually said “Play that shocking song again, Sam.”

No. no, no … Ali actually said “I shook up the world” after he beat Sonny Liston in their first fight in 1964, not “I shocked the world.” Semantics, perhaps, but if we are going to over-apply it, let’s get it right.

Once again, I’d like to point out that Ali was only an 8-to-1 underdog. A surprising result, yes; a world-shaking result, maybe not so much.

The real issue when you hear about athletes telling you how they “shocked the world” is that it’s just as shocking that they would actually think anything they do might qualify as shocking in the first place.

And by the way, Vanderbilt lost in overtime to Tennessee in that game. Rest easy, World.