NYT Connections Sports Edition hints & answers: Friday, September 4, 2026

Updated: Friday, September 4, 2026 · Hints reviewed by Omer Liban · New puzzle daily at midnight local time — free from The Athletic. · Puzzle editor: Mark Cooper.

This page has every level of help for the NYT Connections Sports Edition puzzle of Friday, September 4, 2026: 3 spoiler-free hint tiers that narrow things down step by step, followed by the complete answers with explanations — each behind its own tap-to-reveal card.

Stuck on today's Sports Edition? Same drill as regular Connections: work the tiers below from a single answer per group up to the full explained solution, revealing only as much as you want.

Connections: Sports Edition works exactly like regular Connections — four colour-coded groups from easiest 🟡 yellow to trickiest 🟣 purple — but every category is sports: players, teams, rules, moments. It's made by The Athletic and free to play.

Sports Connections hints (September 4, 2026)

1One answer from each group

Yellow (easiest): one of its answers is “PLUNK”.
Green (easy): one of its answers is “HEELFLIP”.
Blue (tricky): one of its answers is “PHELPS”.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay): one of its answers is “LOTTERY”.

2Category hints (no answers)

Yellow (easiest): the theme is “Nail a batter with a pitch”.
Green (easy): the theme is “Skateboarding tricks”.
Blue (tricky): the theme is “Swimmers with 10+ olympic medals”.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay): the theme is “Draft _____”.

3One full group revealed

Yellow (easiest) — the connection is “Nail a batter with a pitch”, and its four answers are: PLUNK, BEAN, DRILL, HIT.

Sports Connections answers — September 4, 2026

★Today's full Sports Connections answers, explained

Yellow (easiest) — the connection is “Nail a batter with a pitch”. The answers: PLUNK, BEAN, DRILL, HIT.
Green (easy) — the connection is “Skateboarding tricks”. The answers: HEELFLIP, MANUAL, MCTWIST, 900.
Blue (tricky) — the connection is “Swimmers with 10+ olympic medals”. The answers: PHELPS, DRESSEL, LEDECKY, THOMPSON.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay) — the connection is “Draft _____”. The answers: LOTTERY, CLASS, ORDER, PICKS.

The puzzle, explained

The purple group is all words that follow "DRAFT" — DRAFT LOTTERY, DRAFT CLASS, DRAFT ORDER, and DRAFT PICKS are all legit sports phrases you hear constantly. The trickiest part is that PICKS seems like it should go with the yellow group since "hitting someone with a pitch" can be called a "pick," but here it's specifically part of "draft picks." Similarly, ORDER might tempt you toward the blue swimmers because you're thinking in order/ranking terms, but it's really just completing the "draft order" phrase. LOTTERY and CLASS are the giveaways since they're pretty clearly draft-related, so once you lock those two in, the other two should follow.

Next in today's routine: Soccer Connections → · every game's answers on one page. New puzzle daily at midnight local time — free from The Athletic. Bookmark this page for tomorrow's hints. Or play Sports Connections on the official site.

More of today's puzzles

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Sports Connections — common questions

How is Connections Sports Edition different from regular Connections?

Same rules — sort sixteen answers into four colour-coded groups — but every category is sports: players, teams, rules, kits, moments. It's made by The Athletic (the NYT's sports newsroom), it's free, and it lives on The Athletic's site rather than the NYT Games app.

What time does Sports Connections reset?

At midnight in your own local timezone, like Wordle — not at midnight Eastern like regular Connections. Wherever you are, the new puzzle arrives when your clock strikes twelve.

What do the colours mean in Sports Connections?

The same difficulty ladder as regular Connections: yellow is the easiest group, then green, then blue, and purple is the trickiest — often wordplay or a sneaky link between the leftover answers.

Previous Sports Connections puzzles

Full Sports Connections archive (137 puzzles) → · How to play Connections: Sports Edition →