NYT Connections Sports Edition hints & answers: Tuesday, September 15, 2026

Updated: Tuesday, September 15, 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 Tuesday, September 15, 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 15, 2026)

1One answer from each group

Yellow (easiest): one of its answers is “BAT FLIP”.
Green (easy): one of its answers is “WEIGH-IN”.
Blue (tricky): one of its answers is “COOL PAPA BELL”.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay): one of its answers is “CRYSTAL PALACE”.

2Category hints (no answers)

Yellow (easiest): the theme is “Events after a home run”.
Green (easy): the theme is “Part of the run-up to a boxing match”.
Blue (tricky): the theme is “Baseball hall of famers”.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay): the theme is “English soccer clubs”.

3One full group revealed

Yellow (easiest) — the connection is “Events after a home run”, and its four answers are: BAT FLIP, HOME RUN TROT, DUGOUT CELEBRATION, CURTAIN CALL.

Sports Connections answers — September 15, 2026

★Today's full Sports Connections answers, explained

Yellow (easiest) — the connection is “Events after a home run”. The answers: BAT FLIP, HOME RUN TROT, DUGOUT CELEBRATION, CURTAIN CALL.
Green (easy) — the connection is “Part of the run-up to a boxing match”. The answers: WEIGH-IN, PRESS CONFERENCE, RING WALK, OPENING BELL.
Blue (tricky) — the connection is “Baseball hall of famers”. The answers: COOL PAPA BELL, PIE TRAYNOR, DIZZY DEAN, HOME RUN BAKER.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay) — the connection is “English soccer clubs”. The answers: CRYSTAL PALACE, SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY, NOTTINGHAM FOREST, QUEENS PARK RANGERS.

The puzzle, explained

The purple group is all English soccer clubs, but here's the trap: CRYSTAL PALACE, SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY, NOTTINGHAM FOREST, and QUEENS PARK RANGERS all sound like they could be landmarks or general places rather than team names. The big bait was definitely HOME RUN BAKER, which belongs in the Baseball Hall of Famers group—his last name is Baker, so it tricks you into thinking it's part of the yellow group about post-home run celebrations. Similarly, COOL PAPA BELL and DIZZY DEAN have words that could almost fit the boxing group (BELL sounds like it could relate to boxing, and OPENING BELL is right there), but they're all Hall of Famers. The blue group was tough because those are genuinely unfamiliar names unless you're a baseball historian, which made it easy to second-guess yourself and try to force those words elsewhere.

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 →