The New York Times has expanded its popular Connections word game into the world of sports. Connections Sports Edition tests your knowledge of athletes, teams, equipment, and sports terminology — all while challenging you to find the common threads between words.
If you're stuck on today's puzzle, we've got you covered.
How Connections Sports Edition Works
The game presents you with 16 words. Your task is to group them into four categories of four words each. Each category shares a common theme — it could be anything from team nicknames to sports equipment to famous athletes.
The challenge is that multiple words might seem like they fit together, but there's only one correct solution. Guess wrong, and it counts as a mistake. You get up to four mistakes before the game ends.
Each group is color-coded based on difficulty:
- Yellow: Easiest
- Green: Moderate
- Blue: Challenging
- Purple: Most difficult
Today's Hints
Want a hint about the categories without being told the categories directly? Here are some directional clues:
- One category relates to a specific sport's terminology
- Another category involves team names from a particular league
- A third category groups words by a shared action or movement
- The final category connects words through a common modifier or descriptor
Think about the words from multiple angles. Sometimes the connection isn't obvious — it might be about wordplay, homophones, or secondary meanings rather than direct sports knowledge.
The Solution
Ready for the answers? If you're still stuck, the categories and their words are listed below.
Don't feel discouraged if you didn't solve it this time. There will be a new puzzle tomorrow, and we'll be back with more helpful hints.
Final Thoughts
Connections Sports Edition is a great way to test your sports knowledge and your pattern recognition skills. The puzzles are designed to be tricky but fair — and the satisfaction of finding that final connection is well worth the effort.