Sports Connections is an alternate version of the NYT’s daily Connections puzzle, offering sports fans a quick word-association challenge that looks deceptively simple at first. From a distance, you will likely spot familiar terms in the 4 x 4 grid and assume that the puzzle is straightforward. Upon further inspection, however, the complexities begin to show their colors, especially the final two categories, and you start making common mistakes like most NYT Sports Connections players out there.
Curveballs such as this can force players to drop the game altogether, and that’s precisely what we are here to prevent. So, if you have been struggling with the recent puzzles, check out the common mistakes in Sports Connections and how you can avoid them.
Look Out for Red Herrings in Sports Connections
The default board that you’ll encounter when you first open today’s Sports Connections has been meticulously crafted by The Athletic’s puzzlemasters. As such, there’s a high chance that certain terms have been intentionally grouped to create the illusion that they fit a particular theme.
For instance, “Liverpool” and “Merseyside” could sit in the same row while sharing an obvious association. However, the former could belong to a category of Premier League teams, while the latter is supposed to slot into a row of Derby names. By falling for these red herrings, you could waste some of your very limited attempts.
To avoid this pitfall, here’s what we recommend you do:
- Re-shuffle the board if you suspect some deceptive placement.
- Identify words with narrow definitions and focus on those first.
- Audit and review every selection – you only have four tries to get it right.
Don’t Chase “One Away” Notifications
Learning how to play Sports Connections is extremely easy. The game has a handful of mechanics, including the “One Away” notification, which lets you know that you’re right on the cusp of solving a category. As helpful as this message is, it has cost me countless tries in the past, all in search of that one elusive term.
Seeing the “One Away” message should ideally be a nudge to narrow your focus. But more often than not, it’ll send you on a goose chase and deplete your attempts. As such, we highly recommend ignoring the message if you don’t get the category right on your second try.
Here’s what you should try doing when you spot that white blob with the ‘One away’ text:
- Upon getting a “One Away” message, note down your four selected terms.
- If you fail your second attempt, avoid picking these terms until you’re down to the final two categories.
- If the message is too tempting to ignore, ignore terms with narrow definitions on the board to shorten the list of potential options.
In fact, this is one of the best tips for the non-sporting NYT Connections game, and you can avoid making this mistake while solving that puzzle as well.
Dodge Blank Space Traps in Sports Connections
In Wordle, a blank space is just a letter you haven’t found yet. But in Sports Connections, ‘fill-in-the-blank’ categories are deliberate decoys designed to throw you off.
When you see words with no logical athletic link, they usually belong to the abstract Purple color category. These topics are typically reserved for the hardest category. Save them for last; once you solve the first three rows, this category will solve itself by default.
You will find examples of such topics in today’s Connections puzzle as well, and there’s no limit to how creative the writers can get. This is an extremely common mistake that even veteran puzzle solvers regularly fall victim to. Given that, here’s how you can avoid it:
- Scan the board for words that have no immediate sporting definition (ex. Today, FC, Live, etc), and avoid picking them.
- Focus on other terms with narrower meanings, and you’ll solve the blank space categories by elimination.
- Apply suffixes or prefixes to ambiguous terms if you are familiar with even one of them. For instance, ESPN FC is a popular broadcast show. And the “ESPN” prefix also applies to “today” and “live.”
These are the most common Sports Connections mistakes that you need to avoid. Before trying them out on today’s puzzle, we recommend applying our suggestions to yesterday’s Sports Connections to ensure that your winning streak isn’t disrupted.
The most common Sports Connections mistakes are falling for red herrings, chasing “One Away” messages, and wasting attempts on terms that belong in blank space categories.
Actionable tips, such as focusing on terms with narrow meanings and noting your selections on seeing the “One Away” message can drastically improve your Sports Connections performance. You will also get better at identifying blank terms as you gain more experience playing this NYT game.
