Sports Edition — the latest brain-teasing puzzle from The New York Times — has officially stepped out of beta, making its grand debut on Super Bowl Sunday via The Athletic platform. Crafted for sports lovers with a flair for words, this mind game challenges players to group related sports terms in clever ways. With themes ranging from team logos to Deion Sanders’ legendary career, it blends knowledge with wit. Now live online and in The Athletic app, this fresh twist in sports entertainment is gaining loyal fans with every clever clue.

🔎 STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NYT Sports Puzzle Goes Official: Connections: Sports Edition leaves beta; launches formally on Super Bowl Sunday

• Where to Play: Exclusively in The Athletic app or playable free online—not yet in the NYT Games app

• Yellow Group (Team Symbols): badge, crest, emblem, logo

• Green Group (Lacrosse Terms): cradling, crease, faceoff, ground ball

• Blue Group (NHL Teams with Singular Nicknames): Minnesota, Seattle, Tampa Bay, Utah

• Purple Group (Deion Sanders’ Teams): Colorado, Dallas, Jackson State, New York

Today’s Puzzle Stirs Sports Fans With Deep Cuts and Smart Play

After an extended beta period that quietly captured the attention of word puzzle enthusiasts and sports fans alike, the New York Times’ “Connections: Sports Edition” has now officially launched. The puzzle made its formal debut on a date that couldn’t be more fitting—Super Bowl Sunday, February 9. And while it doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app just yet, it has found a permanent and highly visible home in The Athletic’s own app platform, a move that signals its growing popularity and long-term intent.

This dedicated sports version of the original Connections game is designed to challenge the breadth of a player’s sports knowledge while still rewarding pattern recognition and lateral thinking. Unlike the broader general edition, Connections: Sports Edition zeroes in on specific aspects of athletic culture, terminology, and history. Some groupings are surface-level and intuitive, but others reach into surprisingly deep or obscure corners of the sporting world.

Today’s puzzle, for instance, offered a telling look at how this version blends accessibility with complexity. Depending on which group a player tackled first, they may have breezed through—or found themselves completely stumped.

Yellow: Symbols That Represent Team Identity

The yellow group, often the easiest by design, focused on the visual identity of sports teams—a clever nod to what fans instinctively recognize. Words like badge, crest, emblem, and logo might sound interchangeable in everyday language, but here they form a tightly connected category. These aren’t just words—they’re the essence of branding in modern sports. From European football to American franchises, these symbols appear on jerseys, marketing materials, and even fan tattoos. It’s a reminder that team identity starts with how it looks, long before it performs.

Green: Lacrosse – A Niche Sport Demands Specific Knowledge

Moving to the green group, things got more specific. Here, players had to enter the less mainstream but growing world of lacrosse. Terms like cradling, crease, faceoff, and ground ball may not be familiar to everyone, but they’re essential within the sport. While it might feel like a curveball for fans of the big four American sports, this inclusion reflects the Times’ intent to expand the athletic vocabulary of its audience. Lacrosse is gaining traction at high school, collegiate, and professional levels, and this category served as a subtle acknowledgment of that momentum.

Blue: Hockey Teams With Singular Flair

The blue group provided a more abstract challenge. On the surface, Minnesota, Seattle, Tampa Bay, and Utah seem like unrelated cities—until one realizes they’re all NHL teams with singular nicknames. No “Panthers” or “Flyers” here. The NHL’s Wild (Minnesota), Kraken (Seattle), Lightning (Tampa Bay), and Utah’s newly relocated franchise avoid the traditional plural format. It’s a curious linguistic detail that subtly distinguishes these franchises in branding. Solving this required not just knowledge of teams, but an ear for syntax.

Purple: The Deion Sanders Challenge

Then came the purple group, traditionally the most difficult. Today’s theme? Deion Sanders—a figure who needs little introduction in sports circles. But instead of focusing on his Hall of Fame playing days, the puzzle required identifying the teams he’s been affiliated with either as a player or coach. Colorado, his current post as head football coach; Dallas, where he played in the NFL; Jackson State, his previous coaching role; and New York, where he wore both Yankees and Giants uniforms, all made the cut.

This group wasn’t just about knowing Deion “Prime Time” Sanders—it was about tracing his entire journey across sports. His multi-sport legacy, from MLB dugouts to NFL end zones to college sidelines, has created a trail of affiliations that only the most attentive fan would immediately connect.

A Sports Puzzle With Serious Staying Power

The official launch of Connections: Sports Edition is more than just a fun side project—it’s a signal that the NYT is serious about engaging sports fans on new intellectual levels. In an era where sports media often focuses on hot takes and rapid-fire updates, this puzzle carves out space for reflection, wordplay, and, ultimately, the joy of discovery.

Now with a stable home in The Athletic, the game seems set to become a regular ritual for readers who enjoy both mental challenges and the wide world of sports. With categories shifting daily, and themes reaching from mainstream to obscure, there’s something for everyone—whether you bleed team colors or just love a good puzzle.

🖥️ You can try today’s puzzle online via The Athletic website or download The Athletic app for daily access.

Sports Edition — the latest brain-teasing puzzle from The New York Times — has officially stepped out of beta, making its grand debut on Super Bowl Sunday via The Athletic platform. Crafted for sports lovers with a flair for words, this mind game challenges players to group related sports terms in clever ways. With themes ranging from team logos to Deion Sanders’ legendary career, it blends knowledge with wit. Now live online and in The Athletic app, this fresh twist in sports entertainment is gaining loyal fans with every clever clue.

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