The New York Times ’ daily puzzle, Connections: Sports Edition, tests your word association skills. Today’s edition (#492) proved particularly challenging for many players. This guide provides hints and the complete answers to help you solve the puzzle without spoiling the fun entirely.
Puzzle Overview
Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, a sports journalism platform owned by The New York Times. Unlike other daily puzzles, this one doesn’t appear in the main NYT Games app, but is available through The Athletic’s app or directly on their website. The goal is to group four words together based on a shared theme. The difficulty increases from yellow (easiest) to purple (most obscure).
Hints for Each Group
Here’s a breakdown of the hints, categorized by difficulty:
- Yellow: Think about factual details used to describe athletes.
- Green: Consider how fans consume live sports today.
- Blue: These are relics of baseball history – stadiums that no longer exist.
- Purple: The connection here is subtle: look for surnames of legendary NFL quarterbacks embedded within these words.
Full Answers
Here are the solutions for today’s Connections: Sports Edition:
- Yellow Group: Player bio information. The words are alma mater, height, number, and position. These are all attributes commonly found in player profiles.
- Green Group: Sports streamers. The answers are Netflix, Paramount, Peacock, and Prime. Major streaming services now broadcast live sports events.
- Blue Group: Former MLB ballparks. The answers are Ebbets, Kingdome, Three Rivers, and Tiger. These are all historical baseball stadiums that have been demolished or replaced.
- Purple Group: Ends in a Hall of Fame QB. The correct answers are forewarner, Harbaugh, honeymoon, and outmanning. Each word concludes with the last name of a Hall of Fame quarterback (Warner, Harbaugh, Manning).
Why This Puzzle Matters
Connections: Sports Edition highlights how deeply sports are woven into modern culture. The inclusion of streaming platforms shows the shift in how fans consume content. The historical ballpark theme reminds players of the league’s rich past. The purple group demonstrates a creative challenge, forcing players to think laterally about word associations and sports history.
Ultimately, the puzzle is designed to be both entertaining and intellectually stimulating, offering a unique daily challenge for sports enthusiasts.
