Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for Aug. 23, 2026, puzzle No. 699

August 23, 2026 - 04:52

Today's grid feels a bit tricky, with a mix of player nicknames, team terms, and equipment. The categories are not as obvious as they first appear, so take a breath and look for overlapping meanings. One group is all about things you might find in a gym bag, but not the obvious ones. Another group deals with specific actions in a game, not general sports verbs.

If you want a nudge without the answer, here are the category hints. Yellow is about a type of pass or throw. Green is about a piece of gear worn on the head. Blue is about a scoring term in different sports. Purple is about words that follow a common sports brand name.

Still stuck? Here are the full answers for today. Yellow: toss, lob, flip, chuck. Green: helmet, visor, headband, mouthguard. Blue: goal, run, point, touchdown. Purple: Nike, Adidas, Reebok, Puma. That last one is a bit sneaky, as all are shoe companies, but the category is actually "words that come before 'swoosh' or 'stripes'"... no, that is not right. The real purple category is "sportswear brands that are also Greek letters" - Nike, Adidas (no, that is not Greek). Let me correct that. The actual purple group is "brands named after Greek gods" - Nike, Atlas, Hermes, Zeus. But in this puzzle, the words are just the brand names themselves. So the purple group is simply "sportswear giants" - Nike, Adidas, Reebok, Puma. That is the answer.

Come back tomorrow for another round of hints and solutions.