Maybe it’s best if sports guys just leave the tweeting to the teenagers, or, at least leave them to those who can get the facts straight.

Washington Post sports columnist Mike Wise got busted this week for tweeting something he made up out of the blue, or pink, or orange, or whatever color tweets are when they are hatched.

Wise “broke” the bogus story that Pittsburgh Steelers Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger would only have to sit out five games instead of the six games he had actually been suspended by the league for.

Wise has since been suspended by the Post for one month (the equivalent of four games) for tweeting the made-up story. As Post ombudsman Andrew Alexander explained to readers:

The action stems from a short scoop to his Twitter followers that said Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who has been suspended for six games by the NFL after allegations of misconduct, will only have to sit out five games. “Roethlisberger will get five games, I’m told,” Wise tweeted.

That was big news for those who follow professional football, and it quickly spread on the Internet. But as Wise soon acknowledged, it was a hoax that was part of a misguided attempt to comment on the lowered standards of accuracy for information shared on social media.

Fabrication is a major journalistic transgression. He’s lucky he wasn’t fired.

When Wise gets back from Tweet-hell he might want to sit down with Chad Ochocinco and lament. The Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver has been fined $25,000 by the NFL for tweeting within 90 minutes before a game. #85’s information was presumably correct, his problem was that he sent it during one of those fake pre-season games.

Ochocinco apologized in a tweet where he said the fine cost him a couple of Bugatti payments.

I sent out a tweet saying I wasn’t sure which number was greater, Ochocinco’s total fines by the NFL or his jersey number.

Bottom line, some of this stuff is actually serious business. There are plenty of bookies here in Vegas (and in every other city in the nation where illegal betting takes place and the NFL pretends it doesn’t) who are paying very close attention to how many games Roethlisberger will be sitting out and what is going on 90 minutes prior to an NFL game. Injuries are similar to State Secrets in the NFL (actually, State Secrets are more transparent these days.)

I don’t think sports has gotten any more complicated, or any more difficult in the two years since I stopped doing regular reports on a daily basis. I think the same rules pretty much apply, just get the facts straight and if you’re wearing a jersey, leave the I-Phone in the in the hotel room, or underneath the foam padding near the goal post so you can pull it out after you score and then miss a couple more Bugatti payments.