Connections Sports Edition #763 Answers, October 26, 2026

Updated Oct. 26, 2026, 4:10 a.m. ET. Monday's #763 is live. Hints for every group and the full answers are below, checked against Beebom and Technobezz. Sunday's #762 solution follows.

Monday’s Connections: Sports Edition from The Athletic and New York Times (NYT) Games is puzzle #763, for Oct. 26, 2026, and it mixes football, baseball and golf slang with a basketball draft group. Hints for each group come first, then the answers in a spoiler section. Sunday’s #762, from hockey nicknames to Canadian stars, is at the end.

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. Yellow is usually the easiest group, purple the trickiest. 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

Sports Edition groups lean on three kinds of links: a player’s career (teams, colleges), places (stadiums, schools, cities) and fill-in-the-blank names such as “Dallas ___”. Sunday’s board also used spelling and word starts as links, and Monday’s ends on a fill-in-the-blank. When a word looks like a team name, check whether it fits a spelling group instead; Sunday’s Jazz and Grizzlies sat with Mizzou and Rizzuto. Find the tightest group first, then use the leftovers.

Monday’s hints, #763, Oct. 26, 2026

Monday’s 16 words are Acuff, Boozer, Defensive, Dribbler, Horse-Collar, Kicker, Long Snapper, Peat, Punter, Returner, Right, Roller, Slide, Tapper, Wagler and Worm Burner.

• Yellow: These four players come on the field for kicks, not for regular offense or defense.
• Green: Baseball and golf words for a weak shot that never leaves the grass.
• Blue: Four first-year players in the National Basketball Association (NBA), named by surname.
• Purple: Each word goes in front of the same football and soccer word, one that means bringing a player down.

Watch for the overlap: Defensive and Right sound like positions, so they look like part of the special-teams group, but they belong with the purple blank.

More of Monday’s puzzles: Connections hints, Spelling Bee hints, LinkedIn games answers and Pips hints. Sunday’s page is still up: Connections: Sports Edition #762. Keep a streak log on our printable weekly calendar.

Monday’s answers, #763, Oct. 26, 2026 (spoilers)

• Yellow, Special Teams Positions: Kicker, Long Snapper, Punter, Returner
• Green, Describes a Ball Hit on the Ground: Dribbler, Roller, Tapper, Worm Burner
• Blue, NBA Rookies: Acuff, Boozer, Peat, Wagler
• Purple, ___ Tackle: Defensive, Horse-Collar, Right, Slide

A defensive tackle and a right tackle play on the line in football, a horse-collar tackle is a penalty, and a slide tackle is a soccer challenge.

Who they are:

• Yellow: The long snapper sends the ball back to the holder or the punter, the kicker takes field goals, extra points and kickoffs, the punter kicks the ball away on fourth down, and the returner catches punts and kickoffs and runs them back.
• Blue: Cameron Boozer (Duke, No. 3 to the Memphis Grizzlies), Keaton Wagler (Illinois, No. 5 to the LA Clippers), Darius Acuff Jr. (Arkansas, No. 7 to the Sacramento Kings) and Koa Peat (Arizona, No. 30) were all first-round picks in the June 2026 NBA Draft.

Sunday’s answers, #762, Oct. 25, 2026 (spoilers)

Sunday’s 16 words were Avalanche, Char, Clip, Gala, Grizzlies, Jazz, Kraken, Lake, Mammoth, McIntosh, Mizzou, Nash, Orr, Rizzuto, Votto and Wild.

• Yellow, National Hockey League (NHL) Teams With Singular Nicknames: Avalanche, Kraken, Mammoth, Wild
• Green, Contains a Double Z: Grizzlies, Jazz, Mizzou, Rizzuto
• Blue, Famous Canadian Athletes: McIntosh, Nash, Orr, Votto
• Purple, Starts of Los Angeles Team Names: Char, Clip, Gala, Lake

Why Sunday’s traps worked

Jazz and Grizzlies look like they belong with team nicknames, but the link is the double Z they share with Mizzou and Rizzuto. Char, Clip, Gala and Lake begin the Chargers, Clippers, Galaxy and Lakers.

Beebom and Mashable, whose solution a local news site republished, list the same four groups. Puzzle #764 arrives at midnight.