You probably already checked the daily crossword or Wordle. Maybe even Strands. Now this is on the table. Connections Sports Edition. It is tough. Honestly. If you are staring at your phone wondering why you can’t figure it out… well. Keep reading. But don’t scroll too fast.
A quick note on logistics. This isn’t in the standard NY Times games app. It’s The Athletic’s creation, which The Times owns. You play it in The Athletic app or online. Free of charge. Convenient.
Here are the clues. Ranked by difficulty, supposedly. Yellow first. Purple last, because purple is usually the trap.
- Yellow: Almost time to draft
- Green: U.S. Bank is one, but there are others
- Blue: Sharp items for shoes
- Purple: The Big Red Machine
Don’t peek if you want to solve it yourself. Go away for five minutes. Come back when you’ve hit a wall.
The Answers
Okay. Here is the meat. No more hiding.
Yellow is Fantasy football moves.
Add, Drop, Sit, Start. Easy, right? It feels easy once you see it. That’s the trick.
Green lands on NFL stadiums.
Arrowhead. Highmark. MetLife. SoFi. A bit of geography, a bit of corporate sponsorship naming. It works.
Blue are soccer cleat makers.
Adidas. Diadora. Lotto. Puma. Why Diadora and Lotto? Who plays them now? Maybe you remember.
Purple is the Cincinnati Reds MVP winners.
Bench. Larkin. Morgan. Votto. Joe Morgan. Tony Bench. Pete Rose? No. Just these four. A heavy history there.
Did you catch the “Lotto” trick in Blue? Or did your brain just jump to “Big Red Machine” immediately?
It is done for now. Until tomorrow, when the pattern resets. The puzzle is simple, mostly. But the overlap keeps you honest. You will probably get it wrong at least once. That’s the fun part, isn’t it? Or maybe not.
Tomorrow it starts again. With new words. Same format. Same headache.
See you then.
