Football, baseball and basketball are all involved in Connections: Sports Edition No. 148 for Tuesday, Feb. 18.
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of “Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the ’70s and ’80s,” as well as “The Totally Sweet ’90s.” She’s been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She’s Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she’ll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, and generational studies Credentials
Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won “Headline Writer of the Year” award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism. Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.
Connections: Sports Edition has a mix of difficulty today. The toughest category might be the purple one (surprise, surprise), which requires you to know a little sports history to solve it. Read on for hints and the answers.
Connections: Sports Edition is out of beta now, making its debut on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 9. That’s a sign that the game has earned enough loyal players that The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by the Times, will continue to publish it. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but now appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can continue to play it free online.
Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta
Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups
From talking fridges to iPhones, our experts are here to help make the world a little less complicated.
Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.
Yellow group hint: Blow it by the batter.
Green group hint: Get those three points.
Blue group hint: South Beach sports.
Purple group hint: Teams that no longer exist.
Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groupsYellow group: Fastball.
Green group: Parts of a field goal attempt.
Blue group: Miami teams.
Purple group: Defunct WNBA teams.
Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words
What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers? The completed NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025, #148.
NYT/Screenshot by CNETThe yellow words in today’s ConnectionsThe theme is fastball. The four answers are cheese, fireball, gas and smoke.
The green words in today’s ConnectionsThe theme is parts of a field goal attempt. The four answers are block, hold, kick and snap.
The blue words in today’s ConnectionsThe theme is Miami teams. The four answers are Dolphins, Heat, Hurricanes and Marlins.
The purple words in today’s ConnectionsThe theme is defunct WNBA teams. The four answers are Miracle, Shock, Sol and Sting.
Toughest Connections: Sports Edition categoriesThe Connections: Sports Edition puzzle can be tough, but it really depends on which sports you know the most about. My husband aces anything having to do with Formula 1, my best friend is a hockey buff, and I can answer any question about Minnesota teams.
That said, it’s hard to pick the toughest Connections categories, but here are some I found exceptionally mind-blowing recently.
#1: Series A Clubs, Jan. 11. Answers: Atalanta, Juventus, Lazio, Roma.
#2: WNBA MVPs, Jan. 21. Answers: Catchings, Delle Donne, Fowles and Stewart.
#3: Premier League team nicknames, Jan. 17. Answers: Bees, Cherries, Foxes and Hammers.
