NYT Connections: Sports Edition returns with puzzle #727, and today’s grid offers a fair challenge for those who follow a wide range of sports. The daily game asks players to sort sixteen words into four themed groups, with categories that can span anything from the Olympics to the NFL, the WNBA and Premier League football. The purple category is a particularly enjoyable one for anyone familiar with a certain alphabet.
Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups
If you would rather nudge yourself towards the solution than see it outright, the following clues point to each group. The yellow group hint is “The Old Line State”. The green group hint is “There used to be a team here”. The blue group hint is “New to the pros”. The purple group hint is “Alpha Bravo Charlie”.
Each category groups four words together, and the difficulty tends to rise as you move from yellow through to purple. Today’s puzzle rewards knowledge of American sports history alongside a bit of lateral thinking.
Today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers
The yellow group is Maryland teams, made up of Midshipmen, Orioles, Ravens and Terrapins. The green group covers former NHL cities, bringing together Atlanta, Hartford, Phoenix and Quebec City.
The blue group gathers NFL rookie wide receivers, namely Boston, Lemon, Tate and Tyson. The purple group is built around sports terms that also appear in the NATO phonetic alphabet, with the four answers being golf, uniform, victor and bravo.
How the puzzle works
Connections: Sports Edition sits alongside the standard Connections game, Wordle, the Mini Crossword and Strands in the daily puzzle line-up. While it draws a smaller audience than the main Connections puzzle, it remains a rewarding test for sports enthusiasts because its categories range so widely across leagues, teams and terminology.
The variety on show in puzzle #727 is typical of the format. Regional franchises, defunct clubs, incoming professional talent and cross-over vocabulary all featured, requiring players to shift between different areas of sporting knowledge to complete the grid. The completed puzzle for this edition confirmed the four groups as Maryland teams, former NHL cities, NFL rookie wide receivers and sports terms in the NATO phonetic alphabet.
