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Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is a mix. It helps to know your football, and also, perhaps, to be from a certain mountainous city. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.
Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.
Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta
Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups
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: Rocky Mountain high.
Green group hint: Gridiron game.
Blue group hint: Big bosses.
Purple group hint: Certain college conference.
Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups
Yellow group: Denver teams.
Green group: Words that come before “football.”
Blue group: NFL owners.
Purple group: MAC team nicknames.
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 Dec. 8, 2025.
The yellow words in today’s Connections
The theme is Denver teams. The four answers are Avalanche, Broncos, Nuggets and Rockies.
The green words in today’s Connections
The theme is words that come before “football.” The four answers are American, college, fantasy and flag.
The blue words in today’s Connections
The theme is NFL owners. The four answers are Blank, Hunt, Kraft and York.
The purple words in today’s Connections
The theme is MAC team nicknames. The four answers are Golden Flashes, Minutemen, Rockets and Zips.
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