The Sunday edition of NYT Connections Sports Edition arrives with puzzle #678, serving up a grid that moves between sporting hardware, team identities, player history, and a precise piece of letterplay.
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 #678:
ZAMBONI | DREAM | SEAHAWKS | SUPER BOWL LX
SKATEBOARD | KICKFLIP | BICYCLE | BOURNEMOUTH
JETS | HAWKS | HAWKEYES | ATLANTA UNITED
DIAGNOSE | FALCONS | TROJANS | RACE CAR
A seemingly random collection that somehow connects into four perfect categories.
Strategic Hints (No Spoilers Yet)
Yellow Category Nudge: Think about what allows equipment and machines to roll.
Green Category Clue: Focus on the professional sports landscape of one American city.
Blue Category Hint: Trace the career and milestones of a single quarterback.
Purple Category Teaser: Ignore the full meanings and inspect the final letters for something anatomical.
The Full Solutions
Last chance to solve independently: answers below
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Yellow (Things With Wheels): BICYCLE, RACE CAR, SKATEBOARD, ZAMBONI
SKATEBOARD, RACE CAR, ZAMBONI, and BICYCLE are all THINGS WITH WHEELS.
KICKFLIP creates the clean red herring because it is a skateboard trick, but its spelling sends it to the purple group.
Green (Atlanta Teams): ATLANTA UNITED, DREAM, FALCONS, HAWKS
HAWKS, FALCONS, DREAM, and ATLANTA UNITED are ATLANTA TEAMS.
SEAHAWKS is the deliberate distraction beside HAWKS, sharing the entire shorter team name while belonging to the Sam Darnold set.
Blue (Associated With Sam Darnold): JETS, SEAHAWKS, SUPER BOWL LX, TROJANS
SEAHAWKS, TROJANS, JETS, and SUPER BOWL LX are ASSOCIATED WITH SAM DARNOLD, connecting his football path from USC and New York to Seattle and the championship game.
SEAHAWKS pulls toward HAWKS, while JETS can tempt a literal wheels interpretation because aircraft use wheeled landing gear. Those overlaps make the underlying career connection harder to isolate.
Purple (Ends In A Part Of The Face): BOURNEMOUTH, DIAGNOSE, HAWKEYES, KICKFLIP
BOURNEMOUTH, HAWKEYES, DIAGNOSE, and KICKFLIP each end in a part of the face: MOUTH, EYES, NOSE, and LIP.
The trick depends strictly on spelling, so the four entries do not need a shared sporting meaning beyond their hidden endings.
The Verdict
The wheels group should fall first because its members share a direct physical feature, though SKATEBOARD's bond with KICKFLIP can delay the solve.
The sharpest trap is HAWKS beside SEAHAWKS, an overlap designed to blur the Atlanta and Sam Darnold groups.
The Sam Darnold group is the streak-decider because SUPER BOWL LX demands the most specific player knowledge, while the purple endings become mechanical once MOUTH, EYES, NOSE, and LIP appear.
Reset and Repeat
Today's best flourish was the face-part suffix trick, especially the neat transformation from DIAGNOSE to NOSE. Reset the board tomorrow and look for another detail hiding in plain sight.
For now, puzzle #678 is solved. See you at midnight for the next round.
