Sports activities followers could already be taking part in the New York Times’ Connections: Sports Edition each day puzzle, which the newspaper has been providing in beta since September. However on Tremendous Bowl Sunday, Feb. 9, the sport is transferring out of beta. The Connections: Sports activities Version puzzle that day shall be Tremendous Bowl-themed, as a tribute to that day’s recreation between the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles.
However do not search for Connections: Sports activities Version within the New York Occasions Video games app. As an alternative, it is going to seem in The Athletic app in each the iOS App Store and Google Play, for Android devices. That is as a result of the sport is a partnership between the Occasions and The Athletic, its subscription-based sports activities journalism web site. Puzzles are written by The Athletic’s managing editor for information, Mark Cooper.
Connections: Sports activities Version additionally will remain available on The Athletic’s web site for anybody to play with out a subscription.
CNET posts daily hints and answers for Connections: Sports activities Version, common Connections, Wordle, Strands and the NYT Mini Crossword.
Learn extra: How to Watch the Super Bowl Without Cable
Connections: Sports activities Version is just like the newspaper’s fashionable on-line recreation Connections, the place you take a look at a grid with 16 phrases and attempt to match them up into 4 classes. However you’d higher know not less than just a little about all kinds of sports activities to play Connections: Sports activities Version. All of the phrases are sports activities associated, and the classes vary from normal phrases about sports activities to superspecific trivia, resembling “rookie quarterbacks to achieve the convention championship” within the NFL.
Like common Connections, Connections: Sports activities Version likes to play with phrases, so that you would possibly discover 4 phrases that each one have “Tremendous” as a prefix, or “Block” as a suffix. And the editors lean heavy on “groups which might be all from this sure metropolis,” or “faculties which might be all on this sure convention,” or “groups in varied sports activities and cities that share a mascot.” So it helps in case your sports activities data is not restricted to your personal residence metropolis, state or convention.
Learn extra: Super Bowl 2025: How to Watch the Halftime Show With Megastar Kendrick Lamar
And for the reason that Occasions is a US newspaper, this can be a puzzle closely slanted in the direction of American sports activities, though often a class concerning the English Premier League or a global tennis match makes it by. The puzzle additionally often throws group logos or athlete pictures into the puzzle, so you must have some visible data of sports activities as effectively.
Learn extra: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Delivers a Real Challenge, Even to Sports Fans
Your ability at Connections: Sports activities Version relies on your data of the sports activities being included that day, however listed below are three of the classes I’ve discovered particularly powerful in current days.
No. 1: Homophones of NBA player names, Jan. 26. Solutions: Barns, Join, Coronary heart and Hero.
No. 2: WNBA MVPs, Jan. 21. Solutions: Catchings, Delle Donne, Fowles and Stewart.
No. 3: Premier League team nicknames, Jan. 17. Solutions: Bees, Cherries, Foxes and Hammers.