Rob Lowe, the ultimate NFL insider?
The Parks and Recreation star, 47, set the web ablaze on Wednesday with a series of tweets suggesting that football superstar Peyton Manning (of the Indianapolis Colts) was heading out to pasture.
"Hearing my fave, #18 Peyton Manning will not return to #NFL," Lowe wrote. "Wow. #Colts…My people are saying Manning will retire today. What do you hear? Colts fans, let's hope my info is wrong. Don't like being wrong, but this time… I'm hoping."
The former 80s teen idol explained himself — well, not really — on a Thursday appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
"I'm a huge, huge Peyton Manning fan . . . And a huge, huge Colts fan. I tweet every week about sports. About, who they should fire. Who they should hire. I do, I'm like a regular guy who has his opinions and stuff," Lowe said.
"So I was tweeting that I heard this might be in the offing and then you learn the power of Twitter. That's a powerful, powerful medium."
When Ellen DeGeneres asked how Lowe obtained this information, he demurred. "I hope against hope, it's not true. . . .Ellen, I could tell you but then I'd have to kill you."
Manning, 35, holds the record for most NFL MVP awards (four), led the Colts to Super Bowl victory in 2007. He sat out the 2011-2012 NFL season due to a serious neck injury.