NYT Connections: Sports Edition for Dec. 13, 2025 (#446)

NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints & Answers for Dec. 13, 2025 (#446)

The NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Dec. 13, 2025 is another challenging entry, with a particularly clever purple group that requires solvers to look inside words rather than simply recognize surface-level sports terms.

As always, this Sports Edition puzzle is published by The Athletic, not the NYT Games app, and focuses heavily on sports literacy across tennis, football, and college athletics.

Below, you’ll find spoiler-light hints first, followed by the full confirmed answers for all four categories.

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Today’s Sports Edition Hints (Dec. 13, 2025)

Ranked from easiest (Yellow) to hardest (Purple):

🟨 Yellow Group Hint:

Get your racket.

🟩 Green Group Hint:

Football, February to September.

🟦 Blue Group Hint:

College gridiron stars.

🟪 Purple Group Hint:

Look for hidden teams.

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Today’s Connections: Sports Edition Answers

🟨 Yellow Group — Scoring in Tennis

15, 30, 40, DEUCE

Classic tennis scoring terminology, making this the most approachable group of the day.

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🟩 Green Group — NFL Offseason Events

COMBINE, DRAFT, OTAs, TRAINING CAMP

These events map out the entire NFL offseason calendar, from scouting to preparation.

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🟦 Blue Group — Heisman Trophy Finalists

LOVE, MENDOZA, PAVIA, SAYIN

A college football–focused group featuring recent Heisman finalists — tricky unless you closely follow NCAA football.

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🟪 Purple Group — Starts With an NFL Team (Singular Form)

BEARD (Bear), BILLBOARD (Bill), BROWNIE (Brown), JETTISON (Jet)

The most deceptive group. Each word begins with the singular name of an NFL team, hidden inside a longer word.

This category rewards careful visual scanning and knowledge of NFL franchises.

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Expert Notes

Today’s Sports Edition puzzle emphasizes embedded-word recognition, especially in the purple group. These “hidden team” categories are increasingly common and punish players who rush to group by meaning instead of structure.

Difficulty ranking for today:
Yellow → Green → Blue → Purple (hardest)

The purple category in particular stands out as one of the cleverest Sports Edition wordplay groups this month.

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FAQs

1. What was the hardest group in today’s Sports Edition puzzle?

The purple group, which hid singular NFL team names inside longer words.

2. What is the yellow category today?

Tennis scoring terms: 15, 30, 40, and deuce.

3. Where can I play Connections: Sports Edition?

On The Athletic’s website or app. It does not appear in the NYT Games app.

4. What makes Sports Edition puzzles harder than regular Connections?

They require sports-specific knowledge plus wordplay, often combining both in the hardest categories.