NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for February 23, 2026
Mashable
February 23, 2026
AI-Generated Deep Dive Summary
The New York Times' *Connections: Sports Edition* is a daily word game designed for sports fans, challenging players to find common threads between words related to sports. Inspired by the popular original *Connections* game, this version focuses on sports themes and requires players to group 16 words into four categories based on shared traits. The puzzle resets daily, growing increasingly difficult as it progresses. Players have up to four mistakes before the game ends, with color-coded categories offering hints: yellow for "Heckle," green for "Characters in Space Jam," blue for "Florida College Teams," and purple for "NFL Teams, With The First Letter Changed."
The game, developed in partnership with *The Athletic*, is available on both web browsers and mobile devices. Each puzzle features 16 words divided into four categories, encouraging strategic thinking and creativity. Unlike traditional word games, *Connections* emphasizes pattern recognition and thematic grouping, making it a unique challenge for sports enthusiasts. Players can shuffle the board or rearrange words to aid in solving the puzzle, adding an interactive layer to the gameplay.
For today's edition, the categories are as follows: yellow is "Heckle," which includes actions like booing or jeering; green is "Characters in Space Jam," featuring names such as Jordan and TWEETY; blue is "Florida College Teams," including schools like GATORS and BULLS; and purple is "NFL Teams, With The First Letter Changed," with examples like BOLTS and PAINTS. The game encourages persistence and adaptability, rewarding players who can identify the correct groupings.
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Originally published on Mashable on 2/23/2026