# New York Times Launches Sports Connections Game Word grouping game for sports enthusiasts now available - **Source:** [Mashable](https://brifing.si/source/3cd6d1d0-9c29-4750-8bc9-f2afefb52505) - **Published:** 2026-08-12 - **Topic:** [Business](https://brifing.si/c/business) - **Original article:** - **On Brifing:** https://brifing.si/s/b7a2db2d-3c33-46c9-94b2-e7df06314f16 ## Game Concept The sports version of NYT's popular Connections game launched in collaboration with The Athletic. Players must find groups of four words sharing common threads from a set of 16. New puzzles are released daily with increasing difficulty. The game is playable on both web browsers and mobile devices. ## Game Mechanics Each puzzle contains four categories color-coded by difficulty: yellow (easiest), green, blue, and purple (hardest). Correct guesses remove words from the board. Players get four mistakes before game over. Board rearrangement and shuffle options are available to help spot connections between words. ## Today's Category Hints Clues for August 12 puzzle: Yellow category relates to 'Faking', green features 'Single-name athletes', blue involves 'Phrases before ## Sources covering this story - https://mashable.com/entertainment/nyt-connections-sports-edition-hint-answer-today-august-12-2026 — --- _Summary written by Brifing from the original reporting. Copyright in the original article belongs to its publisher; read the full piece at the link above._