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NYT Connections Sports Edition #349 featured success, football field areas, QB transfers, and NHL-inspired words.
September 7 puzzle tested sports fans with tricky categories, especially the purple group.
New puzzles reset daily at midnight with fresh challenges.
A new day brings a fresh challenge with the NYT Connections Sports Edition puzzle for September 7, 2025. The popular word game has returned with edition number 349, ready to stretch the minds of sports lovers and puzzle enthusiasts alike. Every new set resets at midnight, and today’s mix comes with its own twists, tricks, and hidden threads.
The Sports Edition works much like the original Connections but leans into the world of athletics. Launched in partnership with The Athletic, the game keeps the spirit of competition alive in word form. The setup looks simple at first glance—16 words on a board that must be grouped into four sets of four.
Yet, as many fans know, the difficulty increases with every category. Multiple words often seem to fit together, but only one grouping works.
The familiar colors guide the journey. Yellow groups are usually straightforward, while green raises the bar a little higher. Blue takes the complexity further, and purple often bends the brain with its layered trickery.
Mistakes count, and only four are allowed before the puzzle ends. To make things smoother, the board can be shuffled, and once a set is solved, the words vanish, leaving the rest easier to handle.
Today’s puzzle brings sports knowledge front and center. Categories play with themes that range from the field of play to moments of achievement, and even clever nods to names and teams.
For anyone unsure, hints always help narrow the view. September 7’s hints teased ideas of success, life around the gridiron, quarterbacks switching jerseys, and words that connect with NHL teams.
The full reveal now shows the exact categories.
Yellow focused on a successful effort.
Green highlighted areas on a football field.
Blue centered on starting quarterbacks who switched teams during the offseason.
Purple played with words beginning with an NHL team in singular form.
Each theme demanded sharp attention, and the purple set especially tested the balance between sports terms and clever wordplay.
The solution for puzzle #349 reads as follows. The successful effort group included accomplishment, achievement, exploit, and feat. The football field set contained end zone, midfield, red zone, and sideline.
The quarterback movers featured Darnold, Fields, Rodgers, and Smith. Finally, the NHL-inspired set brought capitalize, flamethrower, Jeter, and kingdom together. Each group carried its own layer of challenge, and together they made this edition memorable.
The Sports Edition has quickly grown into a favorite for fans who want a daily test that mixes knowledge and creativity. Like Wordle, it builds excitement around streaks and sharing results.
But unlike Wordle’s single-word challenge, this game thrives on connections - threads between words that sometimes hide in plain sight. The Athletic’s involvement ensures a strong sports slant, making each puzzle feel like a mix of trivia and language play.
What makes this edition different is its unpredictability. One day might bring categories tied to team mascots, another to stadium names, and another to players who made history.
September 7 delivered a blend that highlighted both the simple joy of spotting patterns and the thrill of testing sports memory. That final purple set, with its playful hockey nod, showed once again why the Sports Edition has found such a loyal following.
As with every edition, puzzle #349 is gone once the clock strikes midnight. A new set takes its place, ensuring the challenge never stands still. That rhythm creates a ritual—sports fans logging in daily, ready to test wits, solve connections, and share results.
Today’s answers may be solved, but tomorrow promises a fresh board, a new mix of words, and another round of quick thinking.
Also Read – Today’s New Sports Edition of NYT Connections for September 6, 2025
