Today’s Connections: Sports Edition (No. 370) leans on football families, MLB’s postseason branding, a track-and-field staple, and a set of “under ___” phrases. The difficulty is rated 2.5 out of 5. If you want to play before peeking, load up the grid on the official page for Connections: Sports Edition at nytimes.com/athletic/connections-sports-edition.

Quick, spoiler‑safe nudges

  • Yellow: DART
  • Green: WORLD
  • Blue: MANNING
  • Purple: PAR

Or think of them this way:

  • Yellow — you might send these through the air
  • Green — postseason stages
  • Blue — siblings who took the field
  • Purple — like water, attack, pressure, and control

Today’s 16 words on the board

BEANBAG, DART, FOOTBALL, HAMMER, CHAMPIONSHIP, DIVISIONAL, WILD CARD, WORLD, BARBER, MANNING, MCCOURTY, WATT, ARMOUR, DOG, PAR, RATED

Full solution for Connections: Sports Edition #370

Color Category Set of four
Yellow Things one throws BEANBAG, DART, FOOTBALL, HAMMER
Green MLB playoff rounds, with “Series” CHAMPIONSHIP, DIVISIONAL, WILD CARD, WORLD
Blue Famous NFL brothers BARBER, MANNING, MCCOURTY, WATT
Purple Under ____ ARMOUR, DOG, PAR, RATED

Why these groups fit

Things one throws (Yellow) — A beanbag toss is a backyard staple; darts are thrown at a board; a football is thrown on most passing plays; and the hammer is thrown in track and field.

MLB playoff rounds with “Series” (Green) — MLB labels its rounds as the Wild Card Series, Division(al) Series, League Championship Series, and the World Series. Each word in this set pairs directly with “Series.”

Famous NFL brothers (Blue) — The surnames point to sibling pairs: Tiki/Ronde Barber, Peyton/Eli Manning, Devin/Jason McCourty, and J.J./T.J./Derek Watt.

Under ____ (Purple) — Common phrases complete cleanly: Under Armour, underdog, under par, and underrated.

Common red herrings to watch

  • HAMMER can read as a metaphor in several sports; here it’s the literal implement from the hammer throw.
  • RATED looks odd until you see the two-word phrase “under rated,” which resolves to the single word “underrated.”
  • DIVISIONAL vs. “Division” — the postseason round is widely referred to as the Division Series or Divisional Series; the puzzle uses the adjectival form to match the naming pattern.

The board refreshes at midnight in your time zone, so you’ll get a new set of sports terms to sort tomorrow. If you’re keeping a streak, consider tackling Yellow and Green first and saving the wordplay-heavy Purple set for last.