NYT Connections: Sports Edition #351 was published Tuesday, September 9, 2025. Use the clues below in order: start with a light hint, reveal the category labels only if you need them, and open the answer key when you are ready to see all four groups.
How Connections: Sports Edition works
The puzzle presents 16 words to sort into four groups of four, with each group linked by a shared idea. Parade describes the game as a New York Times and The Athletic partnership and reproduces the NYT instruction to “group sports terms that share a common thread.”
Hints for Connections #351
Try each hint before moving to the next layer. The first offers a nudge without naming the category; the second reveals the category label.
Yellow
Hint: They enforce the rules.
Green
Hint: Show Me State jock.
Blue
Hint: Fore!
Purple
Hint: Bird of prey.
Category labels
Stop here if seeing the labels is enough to finish the board. The full word groups follow.
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- Yellow: Officials
- Green: A Missouri Athlete
- Blue: Last 4 Golfers to Win the Masters, Familiarly
- Purple: ___ Hawk
Full answer key
Spoilers below: these are the four completed groups for game #351.
Quick Recap
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- Yellow — Officials: JUDGE, LINESMAN, REFEREE, UMPIRE
- Green — A Missouri Athlete: BLUE, CARDINAL, CHIEF, TIGER
- Blue — Last 4 Golfers to Win the Masters, Familiarly: HIDEKI, JON, RORY, SCOTTIE
- Purple — ___ Hawk: BALL, BLACK, JAY, SEA
Tips for approaching the board
- Look for words that can belong to more than one sports context; a possible connection is not necessarily the intended group.
- Use the short hints first, then the labels, to limit how much of the solution you see before making your own guesses.
- For the final check, compare all four words in a proposed group against the category rather than relying on a single strong match.
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