NYT Connections Sports Edition hints & answers: Monday, October 26, 2026

Updated: Monday, October 26, 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 Monday, October 26, 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 (October 26, 2026)

1One answer from each group

Yellow (easiest): one of its answers is “KICKER”.
Green (easy): one of its answers is “DRIBBLER”.
Blue (tricky): one of its answers is “BOOZER”.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay): one of its answers is “HORSE-COLLAR”.

2Category hints (no answers)

Yellow (easiest): the theme is “Special teams positions”.
Green (easy): the theme is “Describes a ball hit on the ground”.
Blue (tricky): the theme is “Nba rookies”.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay): the theme is “_____ tackle”.

3One full group revealed

Yellow (easiest) — the connection is “Special teams positions”, and its four answers are: KICKER, PUNTER, RETURNER, LONG SNAPPER.

Sports Connections answers — October 26, 2026

★Today's full Sports Connections answers, explained

Yellow (easiest) — the connection is “Special teams positions”. The answers: KICKER, PUNTER, RETURNER, LONG SNAPPER.
Green (easy) — the connection is “Describes a ball hit on the ground”. The answers: DRIBBLER, WORM BURNER, TAPPER, ROLLER.
Blue (tricky) — the connection is “Nba rookies”. The answers: BOOZER, WAGLER, PEAT, ACUFF.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay) — the connection is “_____ tackle”. The answers: HORSE-COLLAR, RIGHT, DEFENSIVE, SLIDE.

The puzzle, explained

The purple group is all about things that can come before the word "tackle"—horse-collar tackle, right tackle, defensive tackle, and slide tackle are all legitimate football or soccer terms. The sneaky part is that RETURNER, DEFENSIVE, and RIGHT all seemed like they could belong to the football positions group, which probably caught a lot of people. DRIBBLER was likely bait for the ground ball category since basketballs do dribble, but it's actually describing a weakly hit ground ball in baseball. And BOOZER, WAGLER, PEAT, and ACUFF all sound like they *could* be regular English words related to sports or movement, which is why the NBA rookies category was so tricky—you really needed to know those were actual player surnames rather than just assuming they were common terms.

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 (185 puzzles) → · How to play Connections: Sports Edition →