Connections: Sports Edition hints for May 1, 2025, puzzle No. 220
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
A quick public service announcement before we continue: The bottom of this article includes one answer in each of the four categories. So if you want to solve the board hint-free, we recommend you play before continuing.
Advertisement
You can access Thursday's game here.
Game No. 220's difficulty: 3.5 out of 5
Scroll below for one answer in each of the four categories.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Yellow: WITHSTAND
Green: WAVE
Blue: HART
Purple: BELL
The next puzzle will be available at midnight in your time zone. Thanks for playing — and share your scores in the comments!
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic)
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Times
43 minutes ago
- New York Times
Decades-long Twins ownership drama, plus the Windup's most-clicked links ever
The Windup Newsletter ⚾ | This is The Athletic's MLB newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Windup directly in your inbox. The Pohlads aren't selling the Twins after all. What a mess. Plus: it was a big day in Wrigleyville, some of it good, some not. And it's the 500th edition of the Windup, so we look back to see what stories you were most interested in. I'm Levi Weaver, and Ken Rosenthal is back tomorrow — welcome to The Windup! I can't know this, but I feel confident in guessing that if it were possible to time travel back to 1992, Twins fans would probably express a high approval rating for the Pohlad ownership. Carl Pohlad had purchased the team for $44 million in 1984, and in 1987, the Twins won their first World Series since 1924 (when they had been the Washington Nationals). They won it again in 1991. Advertisement My hypothetical 1992 Minnesota Popularity Poll would probably have the Pohlad family ranked right up there with Vanilla Ice, O.J. Simpson, acid-washed jeans and 'going to the mall.' Which is probably down where they would rank now, too. It's not just because Pohlad tried to sell the team in 1997 to an owner who would have moved them to North Carolina. And not only because a few years later — after three straight years of finishing 30th out of 30 in team payroll — Pohlad was willing to accept a $250 million buyout to have the Twins contracted from the league. But the malaise had begun. And after that contraction plan got scuttled, it got pretty bleak. From 2004-2022, the Twins didn't win a single playoff game. Carl passed away in 2009, handing team control over to his son Jim, who passed day-to-day control to his nephew Joe in 2022. Joe's tenure started off promising enough. Minnesota finally snapped that streak, winning a playoff game in 2023. Ownership rewarded their efforts by … cutting payroll by about $30 million. Minnesota finished in fourth place in the AL Central the next year. This year, the front office gutted the big-league roster at the trade deadline. So much for that. Two weeks later, there's another gut-punch for good measure: after months of negotiations and at least one near-miss, the Pohlads aren't selling the team, after all. Sure, they're selling a little, adding 'limited partnership groups' to help offset the reported $425 million in debt they've accumulated over the years. But they're not selling-selling. Unless you mean the players, I guess. More Pohlads: Three major stories from the Cubs, and all on the same day. Let's do the old 'bad news sandwich' method. Owen Caissie is being called up: Caissie — No. 5 prospect on Keith Law's pre-season Cubs list — is hitting .289/.389/.566 (.955) with 22 home runs in 93 games at Triple-A Iowa. Caissie, the Padres' second-round pick in 2020, was the big return in that December's trade that sent Yu Darvish to San Diego. The outfielder was 18 at the time, and had yet to play in a professional game. Advertisement Now 23, he'll make his big-league debut in the team's series finale against the Blue Jays. Miguel Amaya is injured (again): When the Cubs catcher injured his oblique in late May, he was hitting .298 (.819 OPS), and Chicago led the league in runs scored. When he returned last night, the Cubs ranked 29th of 30 teams in runs scored since the All-Star break. That return lasted for three at-bats. In the eighth inning, as he beat out an infield single, he touched first base awkwardly, sending him flailing down the first-base line. He left the game on a cart. The team later announced that he had avoided serious injury — the diagnosis was a left ankle sprain. His one hit did spark the offense, at least. Leading by a run at the time, they went on to score two in the inning, beating the Blue Jays 4-1. Cade Horton shoved: When the Cubs didn't trade for a top-of-the-rotation starter at the deadline, Jed Hoyer expressed faith in Horton as an in-house ace. Horton has rewarded that faith since, and last night's outing against the Blue Jays is the latest example. The 23-year-old didn't allow a hit until the sixth inning. His final line: 5 2/3 innings, one hit, one run, two walks and eight strikeouts, as the Cubs beat the Blue Jays 4-1. Horton is now 7-3 with a 3.07 ERA this season, and he's 3-0 and has allowed one run in 16 1/3 innings (0.55 ERA) since the trade deadline. A little behind-the-scenes: one of our editors (hi, Torrey!) is off work this week. She's the person usually responsible for adding the 'most-clicked links' at the end of each Windup. And since today is the 500th edition of The Windup, she left us with a list to tide us over: our Top 10 most-clicked links in the history of the newsletter (ranked by the percentage of that day's readers who clicked). Here we go! Advertisement 10. Brooks Peck opens our list with his report from this March, when New Era didn't ask anyone who spoke Spanish to take even a passing look at their new Texas Rangers cap. 9. Former Twins prospect Derek Bender was released after giving away his team's signs. Sam Blum caught up with Bender this February for an exclusive interview to learn about the fallout from that decision. 8. In our first month as a newsletter (April 2023), Ken reported on a new base-stealing technique that was helping the Yankees look 'like Usain Bolt.' 7. Ken's predictions for this year's All-Star rosters. 6. Keith Law makes his first appearance on this countdown, with this year's Top 100 Prospects list. 5. Every year, our anonymous player polls are good for a few weeks of conversation. But in 2024, everyone wanted to know who the players thought was their most overrated peer. 4. Keith pulls even with Ken — his second entry on this list is his 2024 Top 100 Prospects list. 3. As last year's Winter Meetings loomed, Cody Stavenhagen ranked the worst contracts in the game… 2. …which means Stavenhagen has two of the top three spots on this list: his 2023 list came in just a little higher. 1. I am not at all surprised. Our most-clicked story of all time was from last June, when members of our MLB and Culture staff ranked the City Connect uniforms, from worst to first. Thanks for sticking around for 500 Windups. Here's to reaching quadruple digits sometime around Opening Day 2028. More 500th edition: As a throwback to the early days of The Windup, I wanted to make a playlist for you. Here are 15 songs I've been really into lately. Dennis Lin's numerical look at how the Padres have now overtaken the Dodgers for the NL West lead. The Orioles had zero walk-off wins this year. Now they have one: Jackson Holliday's double beat the Mariners last night. Hunter Greene returned from the IL last night, and was dominant against the Phillies. With the 8-0 win, the Reds are just one game out of a playoff spot. Advertisement It hasn't been a good year in Atlanta. But at least rookie catcher Drake Baldwin has proven he's a part of the team's future. Even if you're not a Guardians fan, Zack Meisel's throughline of multiple could-be aces in Cleveland's history is a great premise for this story on Gavin Williams and Tanner Bibee. Astros news: Josh Hader's return is 'going to take a little bit longer than the two weeks he's going to be on the IL' Hader is seeking a second opinion. Meanwhile … Remember our AL Cy Young discussion recently? Hunter Brown would like further consideration. Earlier this week, we discussed Toronto's ability to add as many as three starters internally. After Alek Manoah's latest stumble in a rehab outing, perhaps that number is two. Got a nice baseball card in not-so-nice condition? It might be worth more than you think, thanks to a new trend in collecting. Brewers win-streak counter: 12 games! A 12-5 win over the Pirates triggered a promotional giveaway that has existed for 75 years (and only been cashed in twice before). If the Brewers win 12 straight, local restaurant chain George Webb gives away free hamburgers. On the pods: On 'Rates & Barrels', the crew talk about how players change over the course of a season — what's true in April might not be the case in August. Most-clicked in our last newsletter: Latest Power Rankings, with free-agency notes. 📫 Love The Windup? Check out The Athletic's other newsletters. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
No Respect For Jalen Hurts? NFL Execs, Coaches Rank Goff and Herbert Ahead of Super Bowl MVP
This will surely rankle the Philadelphia Eagles fan base. Fifty NFL coaches and executives rated quarterbacks like Jared Goff, Justin Herbert and Jayden Daniels ahead of Super Bowl MVP Jalen Hurts in The Athletic's NFL QB Tiers. Hurts was tied for ninth with Houston Texans' C.J. Stroud and considered a Tier 2 quarterback. The signal-callers listed ahead of Hurts include: Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Matthew Stafford, Daniels, Herbert and Goff. (Mahomes, Burrow, Allen, Jackson and Stafford were listed as Tier 1 quarterbacks.) According to The Athletic, a Tier 1 quarterback 'can carry his team each week. The team wins because of him. He expertly handles pure-passing situations. He has no real holes in his game.' A Tier 2 QB is described as 'can carry his team sometimes but not as consistently. He can handle pure-passing situations in doses and/or possesses other dimensions that are special enough to elevate him above Tier 3. He has a hole or two in his game.' Despite winning a Super Bowl and being named MVP, reaching another Super Bowl, earning two Pro Bowl selections, finishing as MVP runner-up in 2022 and going 46-20 in 66 starts with the Birds, Hurts still doesn't get the respect he deserves from those 'in-the-know' around the league. The Athletic's Mike Sando points out that Hurts had the lowest average tier vote for any QB coming off a Super Bowl championship since Eagles quarterback Nick Foles. 'Hurts is always a tough one for me,' a former GM told The Athletic. 'I think he is a 3. They are very talented around him, and he is not as consistent as a passer. They have a strong defense, great playmakers, great offensive line. He is able to function that way. But I don't know that he is the one that elevates them. That is not a slight. 'He is a good player. But putting him in that 2 category, I don't see that.' A current general manager added: 'This is going to sound like I don't like him, but I do. Just by the definition, I feel he is more of a 3. Am I on an island with that?' While Goff, Herbert and Daniels threw for more yards and touchdowns than Hurts in 2024, it ultimately comes down to playoff performance. Hurts is 6-3, with two Super Bowl appearances and one championship, while the other three are a combined 6-8 with no Super Bowl wins. In fact, Herbert has only appeared in the playoffs twice and lost both games. In the end, Hurts doesn't care about these rankings as it all comes down to what he does on the field. But Eagles fans will defend their quarterback to the Headlines NASCAR Predictions for Richmond: Cook Out 400 Picks, including Race Winner Patriots Could Be Thin At Tight End For Upcoming Trip To Tight End Mack Hollins Seems To Be a Roster Lock Following Preseason Opener Report: Dana White Already Walking Back Claim UFC PPV Model Dies in 2026
New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
Answering crucial fantasy football draft questions at wide receiver
Wide receivers go under the microscope as our fantasy football roundtable series works through the skill positions, which started with the quarterbacks and running backs. As with the previous two position roundtables, The Athletic fantasy football crew of Jake Ciely, Michael Salfino, Andy Behrens and Dalton Del Don return to offer their opinions on hot-button questions at the WR position. Advertisement What are the offensive statistical expectations for lauded rookie Travis Hunter? Who are the WRs to target among the Top 15 in ADP in addition to those falling outside the Top 30? What is the best QB-WR stack to target in drafts? Read on for our answers to these questions, and stay tuned in later this week for our tight end roundtable. Note: All ADPs mentioned below are from Fantasy Pros. Ciely: The easy answer is CeeDee Lamb because he's done it before, but to be less obvious, I'll say Drake London. We need to find a wideout with the potential for 1500+ yards and 12+ touchdowns. It's far from likely, even with Michael Penix targeting London eleventy billion times down the stretch last season. Still, another 160 targets for London would allow him to improve on his 1,271 and 9 from last year, and if he reached the 175 mark like Chase did last season, a line of 120-1500-12 is in play. Salfino: Nico Collins. Last season, he had a 17-game pace of 96-1,425-10 with 153 targets. He basically missed six games as he got hurt very early in one game on a long TD. Collins had three explosive games (25+ PPR points), tied for second in the league. Behrens: The boring-yet-correct answer here is Lamb. He already has a WR1 season to his credit, so we don't need to speculate about his ceiling. Lamb is also tied to a fully functional quarterback, which cannot be said for every top-of-draft receiver. Del Don: Lamb has averaged 11.1 targets, 100 receiving yards and has been fantasy's WR1 during games with Dak Prescott over the past two seasons. His setup remains terrific, including the addition of George Pickens. The alternative answer here is Malik Nabers. I have both ranked ahead of Justin Jefferson. Advertisement Funston: London. He just logged perhaps the most unassuming Top 5 WR fantasy campaign in recent memory. He's probably right there with Nabers for the best odds to lead the NFL in Target%. He managed his Top 5 finish despite Kirk Cousins' mid-season crash at QB. Penix has a Howitzer attached to his shoulder, opening the entire field for London. The three-game sample of this duo at work last season was enticing, to say the least — combined 39 targets, 22 catches, 352 receiving yards, 2 TDs. Ciely: Prescott and Lamb or Jordan Love and Matthew Golden. Salfino: Nico Collins and C.J. Stroud. It's just last year's cheat sheet for Stroud, who was being drafted as the QB5 last year (hated that price). Now all those guys have run and hidden, the cowards, and I'm there to scoop up Stroud if I have Collins — basically whenever I feel like it. Behrens: Given the current contract-related staredown in Washington, it's never been easier to pair Terry McLaurin with Jayden Daniels. That's a stellar duo. It would be ridiculous if the team and player can't settle on a number soon. Del Don: The Lamb and Prescott pairing is nice, but give me Brian Thomas/Travis Hunter and Trevor Lawrence. The Jacksonville combo(s) is affordable, and I fully believe that Liam Coen will dramatically improve the Jaguars' offense. A Lawrence/BTJ/Hunter stack will help 'feed families' this season. Funston: Bo Nix and Courtland Sutton. I'm not a stack-or-die fantasy manager, but if I miss on an elite QB, I'd be good with a Nix/Sutton stack, especially if you can land Nix closer to QB10. If Nix goes off, there's very little chance Sutton will not be part of the fireworks show. In fact, when Nix found his stride in his rookie campaign from Weeks 8-18, he was QB6 in that span, and Sutton was WR7. Ciely: London would be my answer, but since he was the No. 1 WR answer (above), I'll say Davante Adams. He was putting up WR1 numbers with the Jets and Aaron Rodgers (and Garrett Wilson), which makes me believe there is a non-zero chance Adams can outscore Puka Nacua, regardless of Nacua's health. No, I wouldn't put an even-money bet on it, but Adams showed he's still playing at a peak level, and only scored one fewer PPG than Nacua, despite the differences in offensive effectiveness. Advertisement Salfino: Easy, it's London. His full-season pace in the three games with Penix was 221 targets, 124-1,995-11. Those aren't typos. Behrens: I will gladly take Jaxon Smith-Njigba several spots above ADP. He's coming off a 100-catch season and should find himself used all over the formation in the year ahead. JSN is actually a sneaky-good bet to lead the NFL in receptions. Del Don: Nabers earned the second-most targets in the league last year as a 21-year-old rookie despite missing two contests. He now gets a real quarterback upgrade while remaining the only game in town for the Giants. Nabers is my favorite to be fantasy's No. 1 overall pick in 2026. If I miss on Nabers, then it's Brian Thomas. Funston: London, for the reason I and others have already mentioned. That said, I also like a JSN pick at the back end of the Top 15. Ciely: Similar to my RB roundtable answer, there isn't a 'must avoid' player in the Top 15, but I have almost no shares of Ladd McConkey, and that was before Keenan Allen's arrival. I love McConkey and was extremely high on him last year. Nevertheless, I think McConkey surprised many people and skewed the perception of his ceiling. I still believe McConkey can do even better, but I don't see a ceiling much higher than his rookie debut, and it would take a decent target bump. Given the Chargers' offense, I think 130 could be McConkey's target ceiling, and while that would make him a back-end WR1, he'd slide in only a few spots higher than last season. Honestly, I'm being nitpicky here, trying to find an answer. Salfino: Nacua absolutely despises touchdowns — hates them with the intensity of a thousand suns. Hates them to a degree commensurate with Davante Adams' love for them. Behrens: I can't say there's anyone I'm actively avoiding inside the Top 15, but I don't have Adams ranked quite that high on my personal board. However, that's more about my belief in guys like McLaurin and Mike Evans, and less about Adams specifically. Ideally, he would not be in a situation where his value was tied to a 37-year-old quarterback dealing with a medley of minor injuries. Advertisement Del Don: Amon-Ra St. Brown is going too high as a Top 5 WR in such a loaded tier. The Lions lost Ben Johnson, Detroit will score fewer points in 2025, and Jameson Williams will continue to emerge. I'm not a St. Brown hater; I just slightly prefer other WRs in the same ADP range. Funston: Nico Collins. He's averaged more than four DNPs a season in his four-year career; he's been under a 20% target rate in each of the past two seasons (his 18.3% mark last season ranked 38th at WR); Houston might have the league's worst offensive line; and at least until Joe Mixon proves his foot is not an issue or rookie Jayden Higgins proves he's a force to be reckoned with (for the record, I do like his odds of that), there's no reason a defense shouldn't put extra emphasis on shutting Collins down. Ciely: Can I just share a list? Rome Odunze, Jakobi Meyers, Matthew Golden, Jayden Higgins, Ricky Pearsall and Cooper Kupp (he's so cheap that the risk is worth it, and you can make him one of your first drops if he looks toast). Salfino: Is Jauan Jennings' ADP of WR43 some kind of joke? In his 10 starts, Jennings went 59-767-6. Over 17 games, that works out to 100-1,304-10. Behrens: There's a very real chance Golden emerges quickly as Green Bay's top target. He's certainly worth a modest reach in drafts. Golden has been the subject of several tantalizing camp hype videos, for what it's worth, and everyone surrounding the team seems to be buzzing about his talent. Del Don: Calvin Ridley should continue to dominate targets in Tennessee, but with a big upgrade at quarterback with Cam Ward. Ridley led the league in air yards last season, but just 56% were catchable. Also, Emeka Egbuka's ADP (WR47) looks like a misprint — he's my WR34. Funston: Pearsall. Deebo Samuel is gone, and we can't assume Brandon Aiyuk will hit the ground at full speed upon his return, even if he's back by the Week 6 target date the team is suggesting. And then there's Jennings, who wants a new contract while also dealing with a calf injury. Pearsall should have no problem seeing a heavy share of targets and, after being shot in the chest just before the start of his rookie season, he left us with a couple of games to dream on at the end of the 2024 campaign — a combined 14 catches, 210 receiving yards, 2 TDs in Weeks 17-18. As you can see below, Salfino was most bullish about Hunter's first-year fantasy contributions, projecting a line that would yield 254.5 PPR points — which would have landed him at No. 8 at WR last season, ahead of Garrett Wilson (253.9) and behind Lamb (263.4). That said, Del Don initially responded to the question with this: '120/2000/20 (in all seriousness, make Hunter a priority target!)' I asked him for an 'all-seriousness' revision of his numbers, and he came back with a line that would have landed him as the No. 20 WR last season (216.1 PPR points, just ahead of Jakobi Meyers). Funston's line was the lowest at 194 PPR points, which would have returned a WR32 value last season. Ciely: It's Kupp. If he's even 90% of what we used to know, Kupp benefits from Klint Kubiak's system, which can maximize wideout upside, especially with a narrow two-receiver focus. Kubiak enjoys deploying a tight end (or two) in the short area, often including a running back coming out of the backfield, which frees his top two wideouts downfield. This should help Kupp's late-career concern with a lack of separation while improving his bounce-back potential. Advertisement Salfino: Kupp was hurt last year with an ankle injury, and I refuse to believe he's done entering his age-32 season. I don't care how much the Seahawks want to run; they will throw 525 passes. Who is going to stop Kupp from getting at least 135 of them? Behrens: Diggs is the only name on this list with a realistic shot to function as his team's No. 1 receiver. His recovery from ACL surgery seems to have been pretty close to a best-case scenario, too. If Diggs and the Patriots can keep each other happy, it's not difficult to imagine a path to a useful fantasy season. Del Don: Diggs. He looks good returning from ACL surgery and should dominate targets as Drake Maye's clear No. 1 receiver. Kupp and Samuel are leaving ideal offensive environments, while Allen is 33 years old and loses fantasy value, now slated to play the 'Z' position (and no longer the slot) in Los Angeles. Funston: Diggs can be a legit WR1 for his team, whereas that role doesn't appear to be in the offing for the others, though I suppose maybe for Deebo if McLaurin is a lengthy holdout (I wouldn't bet on it). (Top photo of CeeDee Lamb: Kirby Lee / Imagn Images) Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle
