Technologies
Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for May 17, #236
Hints and answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, No. 236, for May 17.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.
Connections: Sports Edition has one pretty simple category, especially if you’re a fan of horses. The other ones aren’t terrible, though there are a couple of very long words that barely fit in the grid. Read on for hints and the answers.
Connections: Sports Edition is out of beta now, making its debut on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 9. That’s a sign that the game has earned enough loyal players that The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by the Times, will continue to publish it. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but now appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can continue to play it free online.
Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta
Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups
Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.
Yellow group hint: NFL division.
Green group hint: Sport of kings.
Blue group hint: Laverne and Shirley’s hometown.
Purple group hint: Hoops coach.
Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups
Yellow group: An AFC South player.
Green group: First words of famous horse races.
Blue group: Milwaukee sporting greats.
Purple group: Teams coached by Rick Pitino.
Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words
What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?
The yellow words in today’s Connections
The theme is an AFC South player. The four answers are Colt, Jaguar, Texan and Titan.
The green words in today’s Connections
The theme is first words of famous horse races. The four answers are Belmont, Breeders’, Kentucky and Preakness.
The blue words in today’s Connections
The theme is Milwaukee sporting greats. The four answers are Abdul-Jabbar, Antetokounmpo, Molitor and Yount.
The purple words in today’s Connections
The theme is teams coached by Rick Pitino. The four answers are Celtics, Iona, Panathinaikos and St. John’s.
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AI-Voiced Darth Vader Can Swear, Say ‘Skibidi Toilet’ in Fortnite: How to Find It
Expletives are apparently not off the table as a foul-mouthed AI Darth Vader is added to Fortnite.

It didn’t take long after Epic Games unleashed famous Star Wars Sith lord Darth Vader into the game Fortnite — complete with the AI-enabled voice of late actor James Earl Jones for conversations with players — for Vader to drop the F-bomb.
As seen on multiple social-media videos, Vader can be prompted to say lots of things you wouldn’t find in a Star Wars script, such as curse words, «Skibidi toilet» and to share his thoughts on breasts.
A representative from Epic Games pointed to a post on X saying that the company has already addressed the apparent lack of language filtering. The post reads, «We pushed a hotfix immediately and this shouldn’t happen again.»
But gamers were apparently able to capture footage of inappropriate banter from Vader in the time before the fix was issue. Epic is asking gamers to report any additional problems.
Safety filters to stop the swearing
A representative for Epic Games told CNET on Friday that there are three layers of safety filters built into the feature to prevent this from happening again.
Also, parents must enable the option to «allow voice and written communication with AI features» for kid accounts to speak with Vader.
And even the Dark Lord of the Sith can still get kicked out of the game.
«If a player is repeatedly attempting to get Darth Vader to violate our settings and instructions, he will eventually leave the squad, and the player will be unable to recruit him again in that gameplay session,» the representative said. «If we become aware or receive a bug report that Darth Vader in Fortnite responded in a way he shouldn’t, we investigate it and if needed, make adjustments to avoid similar responses in the future.»
Where is this F-bomb dropping Vader?
It’s likely you’ve missed the window to have an R-rated conversation with Luke Skywalker’s father — although you can find clips that others have saved and posted on social media.
But Vader can still be found in Fortnite’s Battle Royale mode in the Samurai’s Solitude area in the southwest of the map. Your party can recruit the new Vader, who replaced Samurai Vader, and have an AI chatbot conversation with him. Epic used Google’s Gemini 2.0 Flash model for the responses.
The family of Jones, who voiced the character since the first Star Wars movie, gave Epic permission to use his voice with AI models.
«James Earl felt that the voice of Darth Vader was inseparable from the story of Star Wars, and he always wanted fans of all ages to continue to experience it,» the family said in a statement. «We hope that this collaboration with Fortnite will allow both longtime fans of Darth Vader and newer generations to share in the enjoyment of this iconic character.»
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