Two-Minute Drill With Jim Monaghan and Chris Swendeman

Send us Fan Mail The United States Men's National Team's run in the 2026 World Cup ended Monday night with a 4-1 knockout loss to Belgium. Despite FIFA (thanks perhaps in response to a phone call from President Trump) allowing the USA's top scorer Folarin Balogun to play after a red-card suspension during the team's match with Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Americans looked flat a...

Send us Fan Mail Right now the Mets and Red Sox appear to be going in two different directions. And relax, Yankees fans.  You won't remember this past weekend by the end of July. Following a 4-game weekend sweep of the Yankees and a Monday night win over the Nationals, the Red Sox appear to have found some momentum. The Mets?  They are firmly entrenched in last place in the NL East and on the...

Send us Fan Mail A lot of former New Jersey high school football players have been in a Super Bowl.  Only a handful of them are quarterbacks. Joe Theismann is one of them. A product of South River High School, Joe went to Notre Dame where he was an All-American and an Academic All-American, as well as being in contention for the coveted Heisman Trophy ( he would ultimately finish second to Jim Plu...

Send us Fan Mail That's clearly a loaded question given the number of GREAT players who have worn the Knicks' uniform over the years. But if his performance in the 2026 NBA Playoffs, especially the championship-winning series versus the Spurs, doesn't put Jalen Brunson at the top, he's certainly in the top 2 alongside Willis Reed. Brunson did what no other Knick has done in 53...

Send us Fan Mail If the cliche that a playoff series doesn't get interesting until the home team loses, then there should be three times the interest in the NBA Finals right now because the home team has lost in each of the first three games so far. On one hand, it's not all that surprising. Despite the fact that the Knicks won Game 1 easily and managed to corral a win in Game 2, the Spu...

Send us Fan Mail  The NBA Finals begin tonight with the New York Knicks on the road against the San Antonio Spurs. Despite the fact that the Knicks are on a dominant 11-0 playoff run, their detractors will tell you that they didn't face strong teams. We're not buying what the detractors are selling, especially not after how the Knicks buried their three postseason opponents in the final...

Send us Fan Mail The New York Knicks aren't just beating teams.   They're demoralizing them. Currently on an 11-0 run as they await the winner of the NBA's Western Conference series between the Spurs and the Thunder, the Knicks closed out their playoff rounds against the Hawks, 76ers, and Cavaliers with series-clinching wins of 51, 30, and 37 points respectively ALL ON THE ROAD. Gra...

Send us Fan Mail Remember that agonizing 12-game losing streak a couple of weeks ago? Jim Monaghan was strongly suggesting that the Mets fire manager Carlos Mendoza, saying that he was in over his head and had lost the team (Jim might want to stick with coaching high school baseball and leave the MLB stuff to the big boys). Fast forward to mid-May where the Mets have won 4 of their last 5 series a...

Send us Fan Mail Any fears that Knicks fans might have had going into the recent playoff series against the Philadelphia 76ers were quickly put to rest with a convincing sweep in the 4-game series. We're talking a level of dominance that even the most diehard of Knicks fans probably didn't see coming, including a 30-point victory in Game 4 in Philadelphia. You might be tempted to start c...

Send us Fan Mail Hindsight is always 20/20, so it's not exactly earth-shattering news or a sizzling hot take to say that in retrospect, the Yankees rushed Anthony Volpe to the major leagues in 2023. After an eye-opening spring training that year, New York promoted Volpe to be their Opening Day shortstop bringing the local-kid-makes-good story REALLY come to life. Volpe struggled a bit in his...

Send us Fan Mail It may still be early in the Major League Baseball season, but for two teams, to borrow a phrase from Yogi Berra, it got late early as the Boston Red Sox and Philadelphia Phillies fired their respective managers. Managers may not be the ones putting the rosters together (that falls to the head of baseball operations) but when those players don't perform, it's more often...

Send us Fan Mail The 2026 NFL Draft begins Thursday in Pittsburgh and while it may not be a quarterback-heavy draft, there is still plenty of talent to pick from. The Jets have the 2nd pick in the draft; the Giants have two of the top 10 picks.   Odds are that the Raiders will choose Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza with the first overall pick, so the Jets will probably wait until next year to pick a q...

Send us Fan Mail There are still more than 140 games left in the regular Major League Baseball season but an early look at the standings after the first few weeks of play will tell you that there are a lot of teams bunched together. In fact, there are currently only two teams that are more than four games behind their respective division leaders in the loss column and even the most casual of MLB o...

Send us Fan Mail Sports talk radio gave Joe Fan the opportunity to immediately vent or celebrate his or her favorite team's losses and victories. Social media has given all of us a platform to do the same turning some people into media "stars" and giving rise to one hot take after another, many of which are just ridiculous. But isn't that the point of a hot take? With the first...

Send us Fan Mail Among the numerous changes that have been made to baseball over the past few years - bigger bases, pitch clock, putting a runner on second base in extra innings to name a few - Major League Baseball has REALLY attempted to appeal to younger viewers. One the ways it's doing that is by using streaming services such as Netflix which is where you'll be able to see the Yankee...

Send us Fan Mail Think there's a problem with baseball?  Then you CLEARLY weren't paying attention during the World Baseball Classic. It's not very often that you get a Game 7 in the middle of March! Packed stadiums around the world, passion from both players and fans, some drama with Team USA (did the coaching staff REALLY not know the situation during the game with Italy?) and a c...

Send us Fan Mail This week on the Two-Minute Drill, we're thrilled to share a conversation with Kenny Albert. Kenny Albert is the TV voice of the New York Rangers, and the lead voice for the NHL on TNT.  He says calling the recent Olympic hockey ranks among the most memorable stretches of his career, highlighting multiple overtimes and gold medal games for the United States men's and wom...

Send us Fan Mail The Athletic just published the results of their recent survey about Major League Baseball and the results just may surprise you. For one, despite the vitriol he draws on social media, Commissioner Rob Manfred's standing among fans is a lot better than you think.  And you also might be VERY surprised by what the fans really think about Major League Baseball's relationshi...

Send us Fan Mail Both the US Men's and Women's Hockey Teams brought home the gold in the 2026 Winter Olympics with dramatic wins over their respective Canadian opponents. Plus Major League Baseball will be using its new ABS Strike Zone this season following a few years' worth of experiments in the minor leagues. And there are lots of exciting players to watch in spring training (the...

Send us Fan Mail  The average baseball fan may not know who Tony Clark is, but it's a safe bet that pretty much everybody knows who Billy Bob Thornton is. One is the former Executive Director of the Major League Baseball Players Association; the other is the star of the hit TV series "Landman." This week, Jim Monaghan and Chris Swendeman break down at least some of what we know abou...

Send us Fan Mail Jim Monaghan and Chris Swendeman take a look back at Super Bowl LX from the biggest reason to why the Seahawks won to the spectacle of Big Bunny's halftime performance. But wait...there's more! We discuss Lindsey Vonn's heartbreaking exit from the Olympics, plus a quick look at the local MLB teams as players head to spring training.  Follow us on Social Media for mo...

Send us Fan Mail  Lots to talk about on this week's show! The Super Bowl - yes, the Patriots had a relatively easy path to their 14-3 record, but their run to Sunday's game required them to beat three of the top five defenses in the league. As for the Seahawks, the Sam Darnold Redemption Tour continues as the former Jets QB finds himself in a FAR different position than he did while play...

Send us Fan Mail If you're a New York Jets fan, you can plan on punching your ticket straight to heaven because in less than two weeks, you will have spent your time in hell. With the hated New England Patriots back in the Super Bowl and the Sam Darnold-led Seattle Seahawks on the opposite sideline, what's a Jets fan supposed to do? As you may recall, Darnold's "signature"...

Send us Fan Mail Last week on the Two-Minute Drill, Jim Monaghan and Chris Swendeman were talking about how the Jets needed to do whatever it takes to get former Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin in the building in Florham Park and not let him leave until he came on board as their new head coach. Now with the firing of Sean McDermott by the Bills, the Jets have another golden opportunity to bring a...

Send us Fan Mail The theme of this NFL season has been head coach openings - there are nine of them right now to be exact. In all actuality, there should be an even ten with the New York Jets making an immediate move to relieve Aaron Glenn of his head coaching responsibilities and subsequently offering Mike Tomlin (late of the Pittsburgh Steelers) whatever it takes to get him on board. In his 19 y...