Rob Lowe's Peyton Manning Retirement Revelation Continuing to Make Waves

On Wednesday, somewhat-renowned actor Rob Lowe went on Twitter and tweeted that Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning was going to retire from the NFL.

In doing so, Lowe effectively divided by zero. Up became down, the seas dried up and dogs and cats started living together.

When the universe righted itself, Twitter exploded. Everyone had something to say, and it was all pretty hilarious.

Lowe's report of Manning's retirement was quickly debunked by Manning's father and his agent, whose comments were rounded up by the Indianapolis Star.

But the uproar over Lowe's tweet hasn't completely died down. It's too big a deal. In fact, Lowe's tweet is a big enough deal to make even Ellen Degeneres curious. She asked him about it on her show on Thursday morning:

Well, at the very least, we know that Lowe now knows that Twitter is a "powerful, powerful medium."

Excuse my French, but no [bleep], Mr. Lowe. That's the kind of lesson nobody should have to learn the hard way in this day and age.

Rumors travel fast on Twitter, especially when they involve sports. That's where rumors start, and the hundreds of millions of people on Twitter eat them up. So if you're going to start one, you had better be damn sure your information is correct.

Lowe has stuck to his guns concerning his Manning tweet. In fact, he told Rich Eisen of the NFL Network that he got his scoop from “a pretty darn good source.”

For what it's worth, Peyton Manning himself has not come out and debunked the rumor. Because of that, this case can't be considered entirely closed. And to reiterate something I wrote yesterday, we're all going to look like jackasses if Lowe's tweet ends up being right on the money.

But that very possibility hasn't stopped people from clowning Lowe on Twitter on Thursday. 

Michael Lombardi of the NFL Network, for example, is on the edge of his seat waiting for Lowe's next scoop:

Michael Rosenberg of the Detroit Free Press and SI.com is waiting for Lowe to confirm that Rick Perry has indeed dropped out of the presidential race:

ESPN's Adam Schefter, perhaps because he felt annoyed at being upstaged by Lowe, tweeted this:

And so on, and so on.

This kind of treatment is sort of like a modern day equivalent to putting the village idiot in a set of stocks. Lowe will remain in this position until Manning comes out and confirms or denies his scoop, at which point Lowe will either be the recipient of apologies from all those who mocked him or he will fade back into sports irrelevance.

The latter possibility is more likely, but you can clearly see that it's taking a while to happen. People are simply having too much fun laughing at the idiot in the stocks.

Lowe will have to learn his lesson on his own, but his current predicament is a lesson for everyone else, and it's a simple one: Whatever you do, don't underestimate the power of Twitter.