NYT Connections Sports Edition hints & answers: Thursday, September 10, 2026

Updated: Thursday, September 10, 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 Thursday, September 10, 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 10, 2026)

1One answer from each group

Yellow (easiest): one of its answers is “UPRIGHTS”.
Green (easy): one of its answers is “RAMS”.
Blue (tricky): one of its answers is “IOWA STATE”.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay): one of its answers is “GUARD”.

2Category hints (no answers)

Yellow (easiest): the theme is “Yellow things”.
Green (easy): the theme is “La football teams”.
Blue (tricky): the theme is “Associated with brock purdy”.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay): the theme is “Offensive _____”.

3One full group revealed

Yellow (easiest) — the connection is “Yellow things”, and its four answers are: UPRIGHTS, FLAG, FIRST-DOWN LINE, PACKERS HELMET.

Sports Connections answers — September 10, 2026

★Today's full Sports Connections answers, explained

Yellow (easiest) — the connection is “Yellow things”. The answers: UPRIGHTS, FLAG, FIRST-DOWN LINE, PACKERS HELMET.
Green (easy) — the connection is “La football teams”. The answers: RAMS, CHARGERS, UCLA, USC.
Blue (tricky) — the connection is “Associated with brock purdy”. The answers: IOWA STATE, 49ERS, MR. IRRELEVANT, 13.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay) — the connection is “Offensive _____”. The answers: GUARD, TACKLE, PASS INTERFERENCE, LINEMAN.

The puzzle, explained

The purple group is "OFFENSIVE _____" – all four are things you can put after the word "offensive" to complete legitimate football terms: offensive guard, offensive tackle, offensive pass interference, and offensive lineman. The trickiest part is that GUARD and TACKLE are *also* offensive line positions in their own right, so they're doing double duty and might make you think they belong together as standalone position names. PASS INTERFERENCE is the real sneaky one here because it's commonly paired with "defensive" instead, so your brain wants to put it elsewhere. Don't beat yourself up if you got caught thinking GUARD and TACKLE were exclusively about the Yellow things group – they technically are yellow on a football field, but they're way more specifically connected through that "offensive" wordplay pattern.

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.

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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 →