The Sunday edition of NYT Connections Sports Edition arrives with puzzle #776, serving up a grid that moves between arena shorthand, action on the pitch and a sly spelling twist.
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 #776:
GOAL | HUNTER | CURLIN | CORNER
GOL | TOR | FREE | MEM
MIN | STRANGE | ARCHER | PENALTY
TUTEN | LUG | POR | LAWRENCE
A seemingly random collection that somehow connects into four perfect categories.
Strategic Hints (No Spoilers Yet)
Yellow Category Nudge: Think about how a broadcast squeezes information into a small space.
Green Category Clue: Picture the referee pausing play before action resumes.
Blue Category Hint: A shared uniform can matter more than what a surname means.
Purple Category Teaser: Check whether the spelling looks complete before chasing a connection.
The Full Solutions
Last chance to solve independently: answers below
---
---
---
---
---
Yellow (NBA Teams, On Scoreboards): MEM, MIN, POR, TOR
TOR, MEM, MIN and POR are scoreboard abbreviations for Toronto, Memphis, Minnesota and Portland in the NBA. Read them as compact team labels and the short entries become a coherent set.
Green (Soccer Kicks): CORNER, FREE, GOAL, PENALTY
GOAL, FREE, PENALTY and CORNER each precede KICK to name a soccer restart. GOL is the tempting neighboring entry, but it belongs to the spelling trick elsewhere in the grid.
Blue (Jacksonville Jaguars): HUNTER, LAWRENCE, STRANGE, TUTEN
TUTEN, STRANGE, HUNTER and LAWRENCE are grouped as Jacksonville Jaguars. The connection rests on linking each name to that franchise.
Purple (Olympic Sports, Minus The Last Letter): ARCHER, CURLIN, GOL, LUG
Restore one final letter to each entry: LUG becomes LUGE, CURLIN becomes CURLING, GOL becomes GOLF and ARCHER becomes ARCHERY. Each completed word names an Olympic sport.
The Verdict
Yellow looks like the cleanest opening if you recognize broadcast abbreviations, with green close behind once you supply KICK. Those two groups reward familiar viewing vocabulary.
The sharpest trap is GOAL beside GOL, where a near-match invites the wrong association. Purple rewards careful spelling, while blue is the streak-deciding test if the Jacksonville surnames do not click.
Reset and Repeat
Take today's missing-letter trick into tomorrow's grid: an odd-looking entry can be a useful clue to the puzzle's construction. Come back tomorrow for another set of hints and a fresh reveal.
For now, puzzle #776 is solved. See you at midnight for the next round.