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Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is a fun one. The blue group is especially easy once you clue in — as long as you follow the NFL. If you’re struggling but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.
Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by the Times. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.
Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta
Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups
Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.
Yellow group hint: Fore!
Green group hint: Adjust to make better.
Blue group hint: Signal-callers with the same first name.
Purple group hint: Hoops film titles.
Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups
Yellow group: Golf clubs.
Green group: Fine-tune.
Blue group: QBs named Joe.
Purple group: Last words of basketball movies.
Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words
What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?
The completed NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Oct. 18, 2025.
The yellow words in today’s Connections
The theme is golf clubs. The four answers are driver, iron, putter and wedge.
The green words in today’s Connections
The theme is fine-tune. The four answers are better, improve, polish and sharpen.
The blue words in today’s Connections
The theme is QBs named Joe. The four answers are Burrow, Flacco, Montana and Namath.
The purple words in today’s Connections
The theme is last words of basketball movies. The four answers are Carter, chips, jump and Mike.