The Saturday edition of NYT Connections Sports Edition arrives with puzzle #705, serving up a grid that spans combat-sport vocabulary, hardwood lore, Chicago baseball history, and multi-sport 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 #705:
FOOTBALL | DREAM | HOOK | ADMIRAL
FISK | FOX | PHAROAH | BIG ARISTOTLE
LEAGUE | JAB | BIG DIPPER | NINJA WARRIOR
THOMAS | UPPERCUT | MIÑOSO | CROSS
A seemingly random collection that somehow connects into four perfect categories.
Strategic Hints (No Spoilers Yet)
Yellow Category Nudge: Focus on short, forceful sports vocabulary, and sort the entries by how they function during competition.
Green Category Clue: Some entries make more sense as athlete monikers than as literal descriptions.
Blue Category Hint: A shared uniform history matters more here than current roster status.
Purple Category Teaser: Test one missing word before several entries, even when the completed expressions lead to different corners of sports.
The Full Solutions
Last chance to solve independently: answers below
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Yellow (Boxing Terms): CROSS, HOOK, JAB, UPPERCUT
CROSS, HOOK, JAB, and UPPERCUT are BOXING TERMS, each naming a distinct punch.
HOOK is the strongest red herring because it also works broadly as a curved action or an attention-grabbing device, but the other three punches lock in its sporting sense.
Green (Nicknames Of Hall Of Fame Centers, With "the"): ADMIRAL, BIG ARISTOTLE, BIG DIPPER, DREAM
ADMIRAL, BIG DIPPER, DREAM, and BIG ARISTOTLE are NICKNAMES OF HALL OF FAME CENTERS, WITH "THE" placed before each one.
The descriptive phrase BIG DIPPER can pull attention toward astronomy, while DREAM reads naturally outside sports, making the nickname connection the key distinction.
Blue (White Sox In The Hall Of Fame): FISK, FOX, MIÑOSO, THOMAS
FOX, MIÑOSO, FISK, and THOMAS are WHITE SOX IN THE HALL OF FAME.
FOX and THOMAS are ordinary surnames with numerous sporting associations, so the Chicago-specific connection is what separates this quartet from loose name matching.
Purple (American _____): FOOTBALL, LEAGUE, NINJA WARRIOR, PHAROAH
LEAGUE, PHAROAH, NINJA WARRIOR, and FOOTBALL all follow AMERICAN: American League, American Pharoah, American Ninja Warrior, and American football.
The trick works because the completed expressions jump among a competition, a racehorse, a televised athletic contest, and a sport rather than staying in one conventional category.
The Verdict
The yellow group should fall first because CROSS, HOOK, JAB, and UPPERCUT form the grid's tightest set of directly related actions.
The real trap sits between broad sports language and specific name knowledge: FOX and THOMAS invite loose surname associations, while DREAM and BIG DIPPER conceal their athlete connections behind familiar phrases.
Purple is the streak-deciding group because its shared opener must bridge LEAGUE, PHAROAH, NINJA WARRIOR, and FOOTBALL across four different contexts.
Reset and Repeat
Today's standout move was the shared opener that connected four phrases without forcing them into the same sporting lane. Reset the grid, remember that flexible construction, and come back tomorrow for the next set.
For now, puzzle #705 is solved. See you at midnight for the next round.
