NYT Connections Sports Edition: Sept. 4 hints and answers
Today's NYT Connections Sports Edition (#711 for September 4, 2026) groups sixteen sports words into four categories: Nail a Batter with a Pitch (BEAN, DRILL, HIT, PLUNK), Skateboarding Tricks (900, HEELFLIP, MANUAL, MCTWIST), Swimmers with 10+ Olympic Medals (DRESSEL, LEDECKY, PHELPS, THOMPSON), and Draft___ (CLASS, LOTTERY, ORDER, PICKS).
Key Takeaways
- Connections: Sports Edition #711 is the New York Times sports word game for September 4, 2026.
- Yellow covers pitch-plunk slang; green is skateboarding tricks; blue is decorated Olympic swimmers; purple completes "Draft___."
- Players get four mistakes before the board locks, matching the classic Connections rules.
- Spoiler-light category cues include hit by pitch, Tony Hawk game moves, iconic swimmers, and the draft.
- The Athletic-backed puzzle resets daily after midnight, just like Wordle.
If you play daily New York Times games for the nostalgia hit of shared scores and late-night puzzle chats, today's board leans on baseball slang, skate culture, swimming legends, and draft-day jargon. For more then-and-now culture coverage, browse our Nostalgia: Then & Now hub.
What are today's NYT Connections Sports Edition answers?
Looking for the full solution first is fair game when the clock is ticking or you have already burned a few mistakes. According to Mashable's September 4 guide, the complete NYT Connections Sports Edition answers for puzzle #711 are below.
Nail a Batter with a Pitch: BEAN, DRILL, HIT, PLUNK.
Skateboarding Tricks: 900, HEELFLIP, MANUAL, MCTWIST.
Swimmers with 10+ Olympic Medals: DRESSEL, LEDECKY, PHELPS, THOMPSON.
Draft___: CLASS, LOTTERY, ORDER, PICKS.
Those four sets are the only correct groupings. Mashable notes that several words can look related in more than one way, which is why red herrings are part of the fun—and the frustration.
What hints help solve Connections Sports Edition #711?
Prefer a nudge before the full spoiler dump? Mashable's category teasers keep the exact theme names hidden while still pointing you in the right direction.
Yellow: Hit by pitch. Green: Seen in a Tony Hawk game. Blue: Iconic swimmers. Purple: The draft.
When you need one more step without listing every tile, the same outlet names the categories as Nail a Batter with a Pitch, Skateboarding Tricks, Swimmers with 10+ Olympic Medals, and Draft___.
Mashable's lead tip for the day is simple: today's Connections: Sports Edition will be easier if you skateboard. That green group—900, heelflip, manual, and McTwist—rewards players who remember video-game and halfpipe vocabulary.
How does Connections: Sports Edition work?
Connections: Sports Edition is a New York Times daily word game built for sports fans. It launched in association with The Athletic, the Times property that handles the paper's sports coverage, and it plays on web browsers and mobile devices.
Each board has sixteen words. Your job is to find four groups of four words that share a common thread. Correct groups disappear from the board. An incorrect guess counts as a mistake, and you get up to four mistakes before the game ends.
Difficulty is color-coded the same way as classic Connections: yellow is easiest, then green, then blue, with purple as the trickiest. You can rearrange or shuffle the grid to spot patterns, and you can share your results on social media the way Wordle players do.
Like Wordle, the puzzle resets after midnight, so September 4's #711 board is a one-day challenge. Tomorrow brings a fresh set of sports threads.
Why does today's sports Connections puzzle matter for daily players?
Daily NYT word games have become a modern ritual—part brain teaser, part social proof when you post a clean grid. The sports edition gives that habit a fandom twist: instead of abstract vocabulary alone, you need baseball vernacular, Olympic swimming knowledge, skate trick names, and draft terminology.
September 4's mix shows why the format sticks. "Hit," "drill," and "bean" can sound like ordinary verbs until you lock them with "plunk" as pitch slang. "Lottery," "picks," and "order" feel generic until "class" completes the Draft___ purple set. That tug between everyday English and sports-specific meaning is the whole appeal.
Whether you solve cleanly or tap out after four misses, Mashable reminds players not to dwell on it. A new sports Connections board arrives tomorrow, with fresh hints and answers following the same daily cadence.
Bottom line: if you needed the NYT Connections Sports Edition solution for September 4, 2026, the four groups above—and Mashable's progressive hints—are everything required to finish #711 or learn where the board was trying to lead you.