I can't believe I'm about to write this, but I actually may know what this is all about. Well, not "know," exactly, but I have a eerily plausible hypothesis.
Did Lowe send his first tweet a little after 3 pm ET/12 noon PT? If so, here's what I suspect happened:
I live in L.A. (as I would guess Lowe does as well.) At approximately 12 noon local time today I was driving across town and happened to turn on the start of a local sports radio show, one that might also be syndicated regionally or nationally on Fox Sports Radio. It's called the "Loose Cannons," and features Pat O'Brien (yes, that one) and some guys called Vic "The Brick" Jacobs and Steve Hartman. I'm still a relative newbie to L.A. but I gather these guys are longtime fixtures out here. It airs on 570-AM in L.A.
Anyway the show is one I don't particularly enjoy, but as I flipped it on right after noon, one of them (I think it was Hartman) opens the show by saying they're going to make some big, exclusive announcement that you won't hear anywhere else. They promptly report that Peyton Manning's career is OVER, that he will never play another NFL game. And it's such a done deal, that Hartman wants to spend the rest of the show comparing Peyton's (now-finished) career to that of other great QB's, including Tom Brady's. For the latter, we're supposed to presume that Brady's career ended today, so to make an apples-to-apples comparison to Manning, because Peyton is D-O-N-E, you heard it here first!
I had about a 20-minute drive, and I spent the rest of it listening to the other two guys back away from their own supposed "scoop," while Hartman kept insisting it was true, and we should just accept it so people could call in and talk about Peyton's career in the past tense. But the more they talked, the more it seemed that they literally had no source at all that Peyton's career was over. Not one. It was all based on the supposition that Peyton has now had three neck surgeries, and "Pat O'B" (as they call him) had a similar surgery once and he couldn't imagine playing football, etc. Hartman even said at one point that his source was "common sense."
So before I finally turned the radio off in disgust because I was now sitting in front of my destination for several minutes, I concluded that they were actually making a PREDICTION that Peyton Manning is done. But at the top of the show, they really did present it as fact, that they were "reporting" that Peyton was never going to play again and would retire.
My guess is this: That Rob Lowe also happened to listen to the start of this very same L.A. sports radio show. Even a reasonable person, never mind an addled celebrity, could have concluded that Peyton Manning would, in fact, retire, because that's what the show was purporting to report.
So perhaps Lowe tweeted about that, not to break the news because as far as he knew the news was out there already (why, he just heard it on a real radio show!) but simply to discuss it.
Notice his wording: "Hearing my fave, #18 Peyton Manning will not return to #NFL. Wow. #Colts"
He's not breaking a story, but just relaying a story that he just "heard," and expressing surprise, and trying to jump into the conversation that he assumes already is or will soon be taking place about such big news.
That's what I think happened, anyway. And if I turn out to be right, I want everyone to remember that YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST!!!
Did Lowe send his first tweet a little after 3 pm ET/12 noon PT? If so, here's what I suspect happened:
I live in L.A. (as I would guess Lowe does as well.) At approximately 12 noon local time today I was driving across town and happened to turn on the start of a local sports radio show, one that might also be syndicated regionally or nationally on Fox Sports Radio. It's called the "Loose Cannons," and features Pat O'Brien (yes, that one) and some guys called Vic "The Brick" Jacobs and Steve Hartman. I'm still a relative newbie to L.A. but I gather these guys are longtime fixtures out here. It airs on 570-AM in L.A.
Anyway the show is one I don't particularly enjoy, but as I flipped it on right after noon, one of them (I think it was Hartman) opens the show by saying they're going to make some big, exclusive announcement that you won't hear anywhere else. They promptly report that Peyton Manning's career is OVER, that he will never play another NFL game. And it's such a done deal, that Hartman wants to spend the rest of the show comparing Peyton's (now-finished) career to that of other great QB's, including Tom Brady's. For the latter, we're supposed to presume that Brady's career ended today, so to make an apples-to-apples comparison to Manning, because Peyton is D-O-N-E, you heard it here first!
I had about a 20-minute drive, and I spent the rest of it listening to the other two guys back away from their own supposed "scoop," while Hartman kept insisting it was true, and we should just accept it so people could call in and talk about Peyton's career in the past tense. But the more they talked, the more it seemed that they literally had no source at all that Peyton's career was over. Not one. It was all based on the supposition that Peyton has now had three neck surgeries, and "Pat O'B" (as they call him) had a similar surgery once and he couldn't imagine playing football, etc. Hartman even said at one point that his source was "common sense."
So before I finally turned the radio off in disgust because I was now sitting in front of my destination for several minutes, I concluded that they were actually making a PREDICTION that Peyton Manning is done. But at the top of the show, they really did present it as fact, that they were "reporting" that Peyton was never going to play again and would retire.
My guess is this: That Rob Lowe also happened to listen to the start of this very same L.A. sports radio show. Even a reasonable person, never mind an addled celebrity, could have concluded that Peyton Manning would, in fact, retire, because that's what the show was purporting to report.
So perhaps Lowe tweeted about that, not to break the news because as far as he knew the news was out there already (why, he just heard it on a real radio show!) but simply to discuss it.
Notice his wording: "Hearing my fave, #18 Peyton Manning will not return to #NFL. Wow. #Colts"
He's not breaking a story, but just relaying a story that he just "heard," and expressing surprise, and trying to jump into the conversation that he assumes already is or will soon be taking place about such big news.
That's what I think happened, anyway. And if I turn out to be right, I want everyone to remember that YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST!!!
