April 22, 2026 NYT Connections Sports Edition #576 Hints and Answers

Connections Sports Edition #576 leans heavily on geography and women’s soccer history — two areas that can trip up even confident sports fans. Before you burn your last mistake, read through the hints below. Answers are saved for the end so you can solve at your own pace.

What Is NYT Connections Sports Edition?

New York Times Connections Sports Edition is a daily word puzzle created in partnership with The Athletic. Each day you’re given 16 words and must sort them into four groups of four based on a hidden sports-themed connection. The groups are color-coded by difficulty — yellow is the easiest, then green, blue, and purple, which is the trickiest.

Get all four words in a group right and those tiles clear from the board. Guess incorrectly and it counts as a mistake — you’re allowed up to four before the game ends. You can shuffle and rearrange the board at any time to help spot patterns.

How to Play

Select four words you believe share a common sports connection.
Submit your guess. Correct groups are removed from the board.
Each wrong guess costs you one of your four allowed mistakes.
Complete all four groups to win. Share your result on social media when you’re done.

🟨🟩🟦🟪 Category Hints — No Answers Yet

Not ready for the full reveal? Here are vague clues to point you in the right direction:

🟨 Yellow (easiest): These words are pieces of a larger name — think venue vocabulary.
🟩 Green: Four cities that belong to the same division of the NFL’s American Football Conference.
🟦 Blue: These four share a mascot name popular across college, English, and other sports teams.
🟪 Purple (hardest): These are last names of athletes who scored goals on the biggest stage in women’s soccer.

Category Names — Getting Closer

If the vague hints aren’t enough, here are the actual category titles without the answers:

🟨 WORDS USED IN MLB STADIUM NAMES
🟩 AFC NORTH CITIES
🟦 EAGLES
🟪 PLAYERS TO SCORE IN A WOMEN’S WORLD CUP FINAL

Full Answers for Connections Sports Edition #576

Here are the complete solutions for April 22, 2026:

🟨 WORDS USED IN MLB STADIUM NAMES — CENTRE, FIELD, PARK, STADIUM
🟩 AFC NORTH CITIES — BALTIMORE, CINCINNATI, CLEVELAND, PHILADELPHIA
🟦 EAGLES — BOSTON COLLEGE, CRYSTAL PALACE, MARQUETTE, PHILADELPHIA
🟪 PLAYERS TO SCORE IN A WOMEN’S WORLD CUP FINAL — HEATH, HOLIDAY, LAVELLE, RAPINOE

What Made Today’s Puzzle Tricky

PHILADELPHIA was the standout trap in this puzzle. It appears in both the AFC NORTH CITIES group and the EAGLES group — and both are technically correct. Philadelphia is home to the Eagles NFL franchise, and the Philadelphia Eagles are indeed an NFL team in the AFC East… wait, actually the Philadelphia Eagles play in the NFC East, not the AFC North. That’s exactly the kind of misdirection the puzzle exploits. PHILADELPHIA belongs in EAGLES here, and Baltimore, Cincinnati, and Cleveland fill out the AFC North alongside a different city entirely.

CLEVELAND is another word that might send you down the wrong path. The Cleveland Guardians play at Progressive Field — which contains FIELD — so you might try to slip Cleveland into the stadium category. Resist that urge. It belongs firmly in AFC NORTH CITIES.

The purple group was the hardest because it required specific knowledge of USWNT history. RAPINOE (Megan Rapinoe) and HEATH (Tobin Heath) are well-known names, but LAVELLE (Rose Lavelle) and HOLIDAY (Lauren Holiday) may be less immediately recognizable as Women’s World Cup Final goal-scorers.

Tips for Today’s Puzzle

Solve yellow first to clear the board. CENTRE, FIELD, PARK, and STADIUM are all generic venue words that appear in MLB ballpark names — starting here gives you the easiest win and reduces clutter.
Watch the Philadelphia double-dip. PHILADELPHIA fits logically into both the Eagles group and an NFL cities group. Focus on which four cities actually make up the AFC North (Baltimore, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Pittsburgh — not Philadelphia) to break the tie.
The Eagles are more widespread than you think. This category spans college sports (Boston College, Marquette) and English football (Crystal Palace) as well as the NFL team. Don’t assume it’s only American pro sports.
For purple, think World Cup finals specifically. These aren’t just famous USWNT players — they all scored in an actual Women’s World Cup Final match. That narrows it considerably.

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Shahid Maqsood

Shahid Maqsood is a digital entrepreneur and SEO specialist focused on building engaging web experiences. He is the creator of DotWordle, combining creativity with smart, user-friendly design.