The Tuesday edition of NYT Connections Sports Edition arrives with puzzle #673, serving up a grid that ranges across on-field roles, racket action, scoring plays, and a crisp bit of number-based wordplay.
What Makes Connections Sports Edition Tick
For newcomers, NYT Connections Sports Edition presents 16 sports-themed words that must be sorted into four thematic groups of four. The twist? You're limited to four mistakes, and the color-coded difficulty system (yellow being easiest, purple being trickiest) means surface-level connections often mislead.
Connections Sports Edition brings the same addictive puzzle format to the world of athletics, featuring athletes, teams, sports terminology, and legendary moments. The game's genius lies in its red herrings, words that could fit multiple sports categories but belong in only one.
Today's Grid at a Glance
Here are the 16 words staring back at you in puzzle #673:
TIGHT END | END ZONE | SAFETY | SLICE
HEAVYWEIGHT | WRESTLING REVERSAL | WITTEN | SMASH
LINEBACKER | BACKHAND | RUNNING BACK | 2-RUN HR
GUARD | DROP | LAYUP | CONINE
A seemingly random collection that somehow connects into four perfect categories.
Strategic Hints (No Spoilers Yet)
Yellow Category Nudge: Think about the jobs players perform before and after the snap.
Green Category Clue: Picture different ways a player can strike or shape the ball across a net.
Blue Category Hint: Ignore the different sports and focus on what each play adds to the scoreboard.
Purple Category Teaser: Read the final letters aloud and listen for something countable.
The Full Solutions
Last chance to solve independently: answers below
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Yellow (Football Positions): GUARD, LINEBACKER, RUNNING BACK, TIGHT END
TIGHT END, GUARD, LINEBACKER, and RUNNING BACK are all football positions.
The grid plants two clean distractions: END ZONE shares END with TIGHT END, while BACKHAND shares BACK with RUNNING BACK. SAFETY also belongs to football vocabulary, but its scoring value sends it elsewhere.
Green (Tennis Shot Descriptors): BACKHAND, DROP, SLICE, SMASH
SMASH, BACKHAND, SLICE, and DROP describe tennis shots or ways of playing them.
BACKHAND creates the strongest crossover because its opening half points toward RUNNING BACK, while DROP can sound like a general action rather than a racket-sport clue.
Blue (Worth Two Points/runs): 2-RUN HR, LAYUP, SAFETY, WRESTLING REVERSAL
SAFETY, LAYUP, WRESTLING REVERSAL, and 2-RUN HR are each worth two points or runs in their respective sports.
SAFETY is the trap because it looks ready to join the football material, but its two-point value is the feature that matters here. The explicit 2-RUN HR makes the shared scoring value easier to spot once that switch in perspective lands.
Purple (Ends In A Number): CONINE, END ZONE, HEAVYWEIGHT, WITTEN
WITTEN ends in TEN, HEAVYWEIGHT ends in EIGHT, END ZONE ends in ONE, and CONINE ends in NINE. Each entry conceals a spelled-out number at its finish.
END ZONE is especially effective camouflage because its football meaning pulls attention away from the ONE sitting across its final letters.
The Verdict
The football positions should fall first, with four familiar roles providing the cleanest entry point.
The real trap runs through END ZONE, SAFETY, BACKHAND, and RUNNING BACK, since their football-facing associations encourage plausible but incorrect combinations.
The number endings are the streak-deciding group because the connection depends on inspecting letter sequences rather than staying inside sports terminology.
Reset and Repeat
Today’s best move was looking past END ZONE’s obvious football meaning to find ONE hiding at the finish. Reset the grid tomorrow and come back ready to read every entry from more than one angle.
For now, puzzle #673 is solved. See you at midnight for the next round.
