NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026 (#769)

Sunday’s Connections: Sports Edition from The Athletic and New York Times (NYT) Games is puzzle #769, for Nov. 1, 2026. Hints for each group come first, then the answers in a spoiler section.

How the Sports Edition works

It is the sports version of Connections, built by The Athletic with New York Times Games. You sort 16 sports terms into four groups of four and can make four mistakes. It launched on Feb. 9, 2025, with a football puzzle, and new puzzles post at midnight local time, according to The Athletic’s announcement.

Solving tips

Start with the group that has the clearest theme and clear it before the tiles that could fit two places. If a tile sounds at home in more than one sport, count how many other tiles truly fit each possible group before you guess. Sunday’s board has a few tiles like that, so wait before your first guess.

Sunday’s hints, #769, Nov. 1, 2026

Sunday’s board stays close to football and then branches out to two other kinds of competition.

• Yellow: Four rule breaks that bring a referee’s flag in football. A couple of them are also called in other sports.
• Green: Four measures a broadcast can show to compare how two football teams played.
• Blue: Four words that can each be followed by “wrestling.”
• Purple: Four terms from a race in which teammates run one after another.

Watch for the overlap: two tiles are words you could hear in more than one sport, so check every group before you commit.

More of Sunday’s puzzles: Connections hints, Wordle hint, Spelling Bee hints and Pips hints. Saturday’s page is still up: Connections: Sports Edition #768. Keep a streak log on our printable weekly calendar.

Sunday’s answers, #769, Nov. 1, 2026 (spoilers)

The 16 tiles, spelled out: clipping, delay of game, holding and offside; first downs, time of possession, turnover margin and yards per play; arm, folkstyle, Greco-Roman and sumo; and anchor, baton, changeover and exchange zone.

• Yellow, Football Penalties: Clipping, Delay of Game, Holding, Offside
• Green, Football Team Stats: First Downs, Time of Possession, Turnover Margin, Yards per Play
• Blue, Types of Wrestling: Arm, Folkstyle, Greco-Roman, Sumo
• Purple, Relay Race Terms: Anchor, Baton, Changeover, Exchange Zone

What each entry is, group by group (these are terms, not people):

• Yellow: Four fouls called in football. Holding and offside are also words used in other sports.
• Green: Four team numbers used to compare how a football game went.
• Blue: Four kinds of wrestling: arm wrestling, folkstyle, Greco-Roman and sumo.
• Purple: Four words from a relay race: the anchor is the last runner on a team, the baton is what runners pass, a changeover is a handoff, and the exchange zone is where the handoff happens.

Why Sunday’s traps worked

Holding and offside are well known in football, yet they also turn up in other sports, so they can look like loose tiles until the penalty group fills in. Anchor can read as a boat word, and arm can read as a body part, until you spot the relay and the “wrestling” links.

Beebom and Parade’s solution on Yahoo Tech list the same four groups. Puzzle #770 arrives at midnight.