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Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is tough. The purple category requires you to mentally add a few letters to four words to turn them into sports-related words. If you’re having trouble solving the puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for tips and answers.
Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the Times-owned subscription sports journalism site. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it online for free.
Learn more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle exits beta
Tips for Connections Groups: Sports Today’s Edition
Here are four clues for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ordered from the easiest yellow group to the difficult (and sometimes weird) purple group.
Yellow group index: Don’t go up.
Green group index: Gridiron plan.
Blue group index: Pacific Northwest Teams.
Purple group index: Add two letters to form the name of a baseball team.
Connections Group Answers: Today’s Sports Edition
Yellow group: Slide.
Green group: Running football plays.
Blue group: An athlete from Oregon.
Purple group: MLB teams, minus the last two letters.
Learn more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words
What are the answers from today’s Connections: Sports Edition?
The NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle completed by May 18, 2026.
NYT/Screenshot by CNETYellow words in today’s Connections
The theme is slide. The four responses are decline, decline, slowdown and collapse.
Green words in today’s Connections
The theme is football games. The four responses are counter, dive, draw and sweep.
Blue words in today’s Connections
The theme is an Oregon athlete. The four answers are Castor, Duck, Thorn and Timber.
Purple words in today’s Connections
The theme is MLB teams, minus the last two letters. The four answers are angel (Angels), dodge (Dodgers), navy (Mariners) and range (Rangers).