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 isn’t too tough today — a rare thing for this puzzle, which usually stumps me. 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: Jumping jack is one.

Green group hint: Do your job.

Blue group hint: Think Rawlings.

Purple group hint:  Parent of your parent.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Exercises, in singular form.

Green group: Work hard.

Blue group: Materials in a baseball.

Purple group: Grand ____

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 exercises, in singular form. The four answers are crunch, plank, situp and squat.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is work hard. The four answers are grind, labor, strain and toil.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is materials in a baseball. The four answers are cork, leather, rubber and yarn.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is grand ____. The four answers are canyon, prix, slam and stand.

SpaceX wants to launch rockets into space 170 times in 2025. That’s an amibitious goal, considering that only 64 launches have been completed so far this year, and to hit that goal, SpaceX would need to launch a rocket nearly every other day. That’s a significant increase from SpaceX’s single-year record of 134 orbital liftoffs in 2024. For comparison of just how normal the new cadence has become, in 2020, there were only 25 launches. The average launch is every two to three days now. 

Read more: SpaceX Loses Contact With Starship in Third Test Flight Failure in a Row

SpaceX can undertake so many launches because of the Falcon 9, the world’s first orbital-class reusable rocket. Being able to reuse the most expensive parts of the rocket not only drives down the cost, but it also allows SpaceX to increase the number of launches each year. Falcon 9 performed 132 of 2024’s liftoffs, and the other two in 2024 were performed by the Falcon Heavy, which is composed of three reusable Falcon 9 engine cores. So far in 2025, all 64 orbital missions have used Falcon 9. 

Read more: Here’s How to Watch Every Major US Space Launch for the Rest of 2025

It could also be another big year for Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite venture. Two-thirds of the launches last year were in efforts to build SpaceX’s Starlink broadband constellation. And growth is expected to continue — of the 64 orbital missions in 2025, 48 have been Starlink flights.

This number doesn’t include the suborbital Starship test flights. Orbital launches require more speed to go into or beyond the Earth’s orbit. Suborbital launches move at lower speeds since they don’t enter orbit. 

Starship, a suborbital rocket, is a reusable craft designed to carry humans and cargo through space one day. The three most recent Starship test flights, including one on May 27, have ended with the craft breaking up. Previous rocket explosions happened in both January and March.

Get ready to return to Arlen, Texas, with the first season of the long-awaited rebooted King of the Hill from creators Mike Judge and Greg Daniels. On Friday, Hulu posted a clip of the opening sequence and revealed the release date, which is Aug. 4. You’ll be able to stream all ten episodes exclusively on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+.

The opening sequence, which thankfully kept the catchy original theme music, tells us that the reboot will pick up years after the original’s end. Bobby Hill is an adult, and Peggy and Hank are drawn a bit older. Original characters like Dale and Boomhauer are also in the clip. Various events are referenced in the scene, like face masks during the pandemic, and Dale running for mayor of Arlen. A drone even brings in some Alamo beer.

We don’t know how the show will address all the original voice actors who have passed away since the show wrapped in 2009, including Brittany Murphy as Luanne and Tom Petty as Lucky. Johnny Hardwick, the actor who voiced Dale Gribble, passed away during production. Hardwick reportedly did some of the voice-over work for the new show.

You can expect many members of the original cast to return. Mike Judge will be back as Hank Hill and Boomhauer, Kathy Najimy returns as Peggy and Stephen Root is back as Bill Dauterive. And I can’t forget about Pamela Adlon as Bobby.