Another reason to open the Times app before noon
Each morning, millions of people begin their day not with headlines but with puzzles — small, self-contained worlds of language and knowledge that offer the quiet satisfaction of a problem solved. The New York Times, in partnership with The Athletic, has extended this ritual into the realm of sport, offering a daily word-grouping challenge that asks players to find the hidden order among sixteen seemingly unrelated terms. On Christmas Eve 2025, that order revealed itself in the form of competitive margins, a skier's mountain essentials, baseball glove craftsmen, and the overlooked specialists who punt footballs for a living — a reminder that sports, like language, rewards those who pay attention to what others overlook.
- The NYT Connections Sports Edition raises the stakes of the familiar word-grouping format by demanding not just wordplay instincts but genuine sports fluency — knowing your punters from your kickers matters here.
- Wednesday's puzzle created friction at its edges: grouping ANGER, HAACK, STOUT, and WAY as NFL punters required either deep roster knowledge or the nerve to guess by elimination.
- The categories spanned wildly different domains — abstract competitive language, physical gear, brand names, and player surnames — forcing solvers to shift mental registers with each grouping.
- Players are navigating the puzzle as part of a growing morning stack alongside Wordle, Strands, and the Mini Crossword, turning daily trivia into something closer to a personal ritual.
- The game resets at midnight Eastern, meaning no victory lasts — only the quiet momentum of showing up again tomorrow.
The New York Times has long understood that a daily puzzle can become something more than a game — it can become a habit, a small anchor in the morning. Connections Sports Edition, built in partnership with The Athletic, extends that logic into the world of sport. Sixteen words appear each day; the task is to sort them into four groups of four, each bound by a hidden theme. Everything, however, is rooted in athletics.
The puzzle rewards two distinct skills: broad sports knowledge and the lateral thinking required to see what connects seemingly unrelated terms. A category might be straightforward — baseball glove manufacturers — or it might ask you to recognize that ADVANTAGE, EDGE, LEAD, and MARGIN all describe the same competitive gap, just with different emotional weight.
On December 24, 2025, the four categories moved across very different terrain. Yellow asked for words meaning the space between opponents. Green turned to the mountain, collecting the things a skier needs: BOOTS, POLES, SKIS, and SNOW — a mix of equipment and environment. Blue named the makers of baseball gloves: MIZUNO, NIKE, RAWLINGS, and WILSON. Purple demanded the most specialized knowledge of all — the last names of NFL punters: ANGER, HAACK, STOUT, and WAY.
That final category is the puzzle's quiet thesis. Punters are the least celebrated players in professional football, and knowing their surnames by heart marks a particular kind of fan — someone who reads box scores, who notices the specialists, who carries a mental archive of the sport's full roster. The game is designed for exactly that person, and it has found them. For a growing number of players, the sports edition has become one more small victory to chase before the day truly begins.
If you've already carved out space in your morning routine for Wordle, the Mini Crossword, and Strands, The New York Times has another game waiting for you. Connections Sports Edition, a partnership between the Times and The Athletic, launched as a sports-specific spin on the word-grouping puzzle that's become a daily ritual for millions. Like its predecessor, it resets each morning at midnight Eastern time and presents sixteen words that need to be sorted into four categories of four words each. The twist: everything is rooted in sports.
The game works on a simple principle. You're given a set of terms, and your job is to find the thread connecting each group of four. Sometimes the connection is literal—a category might ask for baseball glove manufacturers, for instance. Other times it's more abstract, asking you to identify words that share a common meaning or function within the sports world. The puzzle rewards both broad sports knowledge and the ability to think laterally about language itself.
On Wednesday, December 24, 2025, the puzzle presented four distinct challenges. The yellow category asked solvers to identify words meaning the gap between two opponents—the kind of advantage one team holds over another. The green category shifted focus entirely, asking for things a skier needs to function on the mountain. The blue category returned to equipment, specifically naming manufacturers of baseball gloves. The purple category, meanwhile, required knowledge of a very specific subset of professional football: the last names of NFL punters.
The answers reveal the breadth of what the puzzle considers fair game. For the gap between opponents, solvers needed ADVANTAGE, EDGE, LEAD, and MARGIN—four words that all describe the same concept but carry different weights and contexts. A skier's essential gear consisted of BOOTS, POLES, SKIS, and SNOW, a category that mixes equipment with the environment itself. Baseball glove makers included MIZUNO, NIKE, RAWLINGS, and WILSON, names that span from specialty sports equipment companies to global athletic brands. The NFL punters category—ANGER, HAACK, STOUT, and WAY—required either deep knowledge of professional football rosters or the willingness to make educated guesses based on the other categories.
For players accustomed to the original Connections game, the sports edition follows familiar rules but demands a different kind of expertise. Where the standard version might ask you to think about wordplay or cultural references, the sports edition assumes you're carrying a mental database of athletes, teams, equipment brands, and the specific vocabulary of different sports. It's designed for the person who reads box scores over coffee, who knows the difference between a punter and a kicker, who can rattle off equipment manufacturers without hesitation.
The game has found its audience among the growing number of people who treat daily word puzzles as a form of morning meditation—a small challenge to solve before the day truly begins. Adding a sports-specific version to the rotation means that for some players, the puzzle has become less about general knowledge and more about a specific passion. It's another reason to open the Times app, another small victory to chase before noon.
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
So this is just the regular Connections game but with sports words?
Structurally, yes—same format, same reset time, same four categories of four. But the knowledge it demands is completely different. You need to know sports, not just language.
Why would The New York Times partner with The Athletic specifically for this?
The Athletic is a sports journalism company. It makes sense—they have the expertise, the audience, and the credibility in that world. The Times gets to expand its game portfolio; The Athletic gets distribution to millions of puzzle players.
Is it harder than regular Connections?
Harder depends on who you are. If you follow sports closely, some of these categories are obvious. If you don't, you're guessing. The punters category—ANGER, HAACK, STOUT, WAY—that's nearly impossible unless you watch NFL closely or get lucky.
What's the appeal of adding yet another daily puzzle to the routine?
It's the same appeal as all of them: a small, contained challenge you can solve in five minutes. But this one speaks to a specific identity. If you care about sports, this feels made for you.
Do you think people will actually do all of these every day?
Some will. Others will pick and choose. But the Times knows that habit is powerful. Once you start, it's hard to stop.