Fred SegalFreezing Cold Takes: NFL: Football Media’s Most Inaccurate Predictions―and the Fascinating Stories Behind Them

It was a really great read. Brought up some old memories and the like. Did see some typos but that happens from time to time

This book is a must-have for sports content enthusiasts.I've been following this Twitter account for years and knew Fred was working on a book. I wondered how he'd convert the idea behind the handle into prose.He found a hilariously large number of cases - offline and online - from even years back of pundits, players, coaches, and fans being flat wrong.The stories are snappy and easy to get through. I went straight to the index, looked for Philadelphia Eagles, and found about 10 or so stories involving them. Read em all in a fifteen minutes or so.This book is a must-have for sports content enthusiasts.

This book is everything a sports fan would want to read and more. I would highly recommend this book to anyone, even if you’re not a sports junkie. The writing is excellent and the chapters short, but yet exciting. You won’t want to put this book down.

This is great book to read in a night or two; seriously didn't put it down except to sleep and immediately resumed the next morning ASAP. The author added detail to stories that most readers had a vague notion or suspicion of. Even as a casual NFL or even a non-sports fan, this would be a good book as it also delves into non-sports topics, i.e. interpersonal relationships in a extremely competitive world. I cannot recommend this book enough and look forward to MLB or NCAAF next volume haha no pressure Mr. Segal.

Fred Segal has been intercepting bad takes on social media and running them to the house for years now. Character limits prevent him from giving the Xs and Os on how everything comes together, which can compromise the true appreciation of how bad something truly is.Enter his first major project: a book about NFL takes. He dives deep into some of the biggest stories in league history, reviving takes that seem preposterous with our 20/20 hindsight, but at the time dominated sports talk radio and newspaper columns.Every football fan knows of the great Ryan Leaf vs. Peyton Manning debate. That took place as the Internet was slowly becoming part of daily life in society. Before that, as a San Francisco fan, I recall growing up as the Joe Montana vs. Steve Young feud grew. Naturally I also took interest in the Herschel Walker trade to Minnesota that allowed Dallas to build the foundation and win a rivalry with the Niners in the 1990s three Super Bowls to one.The present is not ignored, however. Right now, two of the top quarterbacks in the league are Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen. Yet there was actually a time that people slammed Kansas City and Buffalo, respectively, for making choices that are slam dunks today. This book slices up those takes as well, with well-written analysis that you may not find anywhere else.What I have described only scratches the surface. Brett Favre, Bruce Smith, and Bill Belichick are discussed, as well as so much more. Every chapter will give you a history lesson that you didn't know you needed but are sure glad to have received.If you call yourself a fan of the NFL, and this Freezing Cold Takes masterpiece is not in your collection, you're really missing out. However, while it's too late for some to erase their hilariously bad takes from this book, it's not too late for you to purchase this publication.Trust me, there's nothing else like this book out there, and that's not a hot take; that's just fact.

Overall I enjoyed the book, and look forward to future iterations of Freezing Cold Takes focusing on other sports. As someone who isn’t very keen on details, I was surprised to notice myself that this book was poorly edited. It feels as though each chapter is written in a vacuum and doesn't account for ( or inconsistently recognize) the overlapping aspects that some of the stories have (e.g chapters about Brett Favre & Aaron Rodgers and the packers - including Tony mandrich. Separate chapters on bill Belichick and Tom Brady arriving in NE in 2000). On page 196, the book even incorrectly refers the reader to another chapter talking about Tony mandrich (sending us to chapter 10, instead of the correct chapter 9). Feels like the editor did not do their job in weaving the interesting and detailed storytelling into a more cohesive narrative. I could have used some additional content - about 60 of the books 300+ pages are notes, indices, and acknowledgments.

Fred built his following by posting articles/tweets/newspaper clippings that are now hilarious and very wrong, but at the time when originally posted, they seemed intelligent. I love that this book takes his content style from social media and provides it in a thorough and long-form way with layers of context, which makes this book highly entertaining from start to finish.

The best way to understand NFL media today is to know its past. It's totally over the top statements about team decisions of the past. How doomed Jimmy Johnson was for trading Herschel Walker. How great the Jets would be with Christian Hackenberg and Bryce Petty. Johnny Manziel is a future hall of famer for Cleveland. Its wonderfulMake sure to follow Freezing Cold Takes on social media.