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.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is a tough one, particularly that purple group, which wants you to find hidden words inside four of the words in the puzzle. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for 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: Smack!

Green group hint: Collectibles.

Blue group hint: Puck pros.

Purple group hint: Toss it.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Hit.

Green group: Sports memorabilia.

Blue group: Former NHL teams, in singular form.

Purple group: Ends in a synonym for throw.

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 hit. The four answers are deck, punch, slug and strike.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is sports memorabilia. The four answers are autograph, jersey, poster and trading card.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is former NHL teams, in singular form. The four answers are Coyote, Nordique, Thrasher and Whaler.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is ends in a synonym for throw. The four answers are blob (lob), shuffling (fling), surpass (pass) and woodchuck (chuck).

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Attending a sports game at a stadium can be fun, but when the crowded stands are filled with people trying to use their phones at the same time, it’s hard to get good cellular reception. AT&T is launching a new service to beef up cellular service in congested venues like these, and you don’t need to be an AT&T subscriber to use it.

Turbo Live by AT&T provides priority cellular performance during big sports and concert events, and will first roll out in 10 US stadiums in early February. Yes, that’ll be in time for the Super Bowl on Feb. 8, if you’re going to be in Levi’s Stadium in the San Francisco Bay Area.

AT&T has yet to formally announce pricing. Currently, there’s a web page to sign up for announcements. However, Rob Pegoraro at PCMag got more details from AT&T spokesperson Michael Delgado, who wrote to him in an email, «Turbo Live starts at $5 per event with a variable structure that changes depending on the caliber of the event.»

Pegoraro said that Turbo Live is not an ongoing subscription open to any customer: «Instead, it’s a power-up offered only in designated spots and subject to capacity limits and variable rates that might evoke surge pricing.»

A spokesperson for AT&T confirmed that Turbo Live is using AT&T’s existing 5G network that covers the following 10 stadiums:

• Alabama (Bryant Denny Stadium)
• Atlanta (Mercedes-Benz Stadium)
• Chicago (United Center)
• Houston (NRG Stadium)
• Las Vegas (Sphere)
• Los Angeles (Intuit Dome)
• Miami (Hard Rock Stadium)
• New York/New Jersey (MetLife Stadium)
• San Antonio (Alamodome)
• San Francisco Bay Area (Levi’s Stadium)
• Seattle (Lumen Field)

AT&T is also working to expand coverage in Dallas (AT&T Stadium), Foxborough (Gillette Stadium) and Los Angeles (SoFi Stadium).

You’ll need a 5G-capable phone, which AT&T says may need to be unlocked, and an open eSIM slot for activation.

The latter detail is what makes Turbo Live available to Verizon and T-Mobile customers with unlocked phones: The feature is installed as a secondary eSIM. A Connect on Demand app will provide instructions for setting it up, which will involve a «one-time payment method» with no carrier commitment needed, according to AT&T.

Running a separate service as a secondary eSIM is becoming more common. It’s one of the easiest ways to get international phone service when you’re traveling, and is also how T-Mobile offers its T-Satellite feature to customers of other carriers for $10 a month.

I’ve reached out to AT&T for more details.

If you’re looking for an unlimited data phone plan for three or more people that includes plenty of perks, T-Mobile’s new Better Value plan has a lot to offer. But does the name actually reflect a better value for an unlimited plan, especially considering, according to the company, it’s a limited time offering?

We rank T-Mobile’s Essentials plan highly in our Best Cellphone Plans, Best Unlimited Data Plans and Best T-Mobile Plans lists, though after reviewing the specifics, the Experience More plan — the number two unlimited postpaid plan — presents a more interesting comparison. Let’s see how they stack up.

Better Value plan pricing and features compared

For an account with three lines, the monthly cost of the Better Value plan is $140 (with AutoPay active), plus applicable taxes and fees. Experience More similarly costs $140 a month for three lines. The Essentials plan costs $90 a month for three lines, but lacks most of the add-ons that make the other two plans appealing.

Both the Experience More and Better Value plans offer unlimited data on T-Mobile’s 5G network, a five-year price guarantee and two-year device upgrades.

However, the Better Value plan includes 250GB of high-speed mobile hotspot data, compared to 60GB for the Experience More plan. After those amounts have been used up, data is available at an unlimited rate of 600 kbps. (T-Mobile’s highest tier plan by comparison, Experience Beyond, includes unlimited high-speed hotspot data.)

Better Value also includes more high-speed data when you’re in other countries, with 30GB available in Mexico and Canada, as well as in 215 countries and areas worldwide. That’s more than the Experience More plan, which offers 15GB in North America and 5GB elsewhere.

T-Satellite is also included in the Better Value plan, a feature that costs $10 extra for every other T-Mobile plan except for Experience Beyond.

One appeal of these plans, especially in the context of families, is the set of included streaming services. The Better Value plan and Experience More plan both include Netflix Standard with Ads and Hulu, and Apple TV can be added for $3 per month.

Important qualifications

Here’s where the fine print comes in, and it appears that T-Mobile is aiming to inspire and reward loyalty.

If you’re switching from a different carrier, the Better Value plan requires three or more lines and two eligible ports. Although it’s likely a family or small business would be transferring from another provider and not keeping its other lines, Better Value is an effort to build up group plans and incentivize switching away from other carriers.

If you’re already set up with T-Mobile, the Better Value plan requires that you have been a T-Mobile postpaid customer for at least five years. And if you have that much tenure, you should be aware that your current plan might have taxes and fees included, whereas the Better Value plan doesn’t.

The Better Value plan is available in the T-Life app and on T-Mobile.com. When you enter a retail T-Mobile store, you’ll likely be directed to the app or website with the assistance of an employee.

And lastly, T-Mobile brands this as a limited-time offer, but I confirmed with a spokesperson that it currently has no end date. 

See also: I got an in-depth look at T-Mobile’s emergency response programs.