NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026 (#768)

Saturday’s Connections: Sports Edition from The Athletic and New York Times (NYT) Games is puzzle #768, for Oct. 31, 2026, and the board has a Halloween tile. 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 looks like it belongs to a food list and to a wordplay list, count how many other tiles truly fit each one. Saturday’s board has one tile like that, so wait before your first guess.

Saturday’s hints, #768, Oct. 31, 2026

Saturday’s board mixes snacks, football plays, players and pop culture names.

• Yellow: Four things you can buy from a stand at a ballpark or stadium.
• Green: Four trick plays from football.
• Blue: Four last names of defenders in their first season in the NFL in 2026.
• Purple: Four names that each begin with a slang word for a home run.

Watch for the overlap: one purple tile is a food that could pass for a stand item, and another is tied to the holiday.

More of Saturday’s puzzles: Connections hints, Spelling Bee hints, LinkedIn games answers and Pips hints. Friday’s page is still up: Connections: Sports Edition #767. Keep a streak log on our printable weekly calendar.

Saturday’s answers, #768, Oct. 31, 2026 (spoilers)

The 16 tiles, spelled out: churro, cotton candy, ice cream and lemonade; fake spike, flea flicker, fumblerooski and hook and lateral; the surnames Bailey, Downs, Reese and Styles; and Blastoise, Homer Simpson, Jack-o’-Lantern and Tater Tots.

• Yellow, Concession Stand Treats: Churro, Cotton Candy, Ice Cream, Lemonade
• Green, Football Tricks: Fake Spike, Flea Flicker, Fumblerooski, Hook and Lateral
• Blue, NFL Rookie Defenders: Bailey, Downs, Reese, Styles
• Purple, Starts With a Term for Home Run: Blastoise, Homer Simpson, Jack-o’-Lantern, Tater Tots

Who they are, group by group:

• Yellow: Snacks sold at concession stands at ballparks and stadiums.
• Green: A fake spike pretends to stop the clock, a flea flicker is a handoff and a pitch back to the quarterback (QB), a fumblerooski has the ball left on the ground on purpose for a lineman, and a hook and lateral is a short catch followed by a lateral.
• Blue: Four defenders in their first National Football League (NFL) season in 2026.
• Purple: Each starts with slang for a home run: blast, homer, jack and tater. Blastoise is a Pokémon, Homer Simpson is the cartoon dad, a jack-o’-lantern is the carved Halloween pumpkin (Saturday is Halloween), and tater tots are the potato side.

Why Saturday’s traps worked

Tater Tots sits in purple, yet it is food you could picture at a stand next to the churros, so it pulls toward yellow. Homer Simpson looks like a cartoon name with no sports link at all until you notice that homer is baseball slang for a home run. Jack-o’-Lantern points to Halloween rather than to food, so it can look like a stray holiday tile until you see the “jack” at the start.

Beebom and Parade’s solution on Yahoo Tech list the same four groups. Puzzle #769 arrives at midnight.