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The Crossword, Dec. 29: Men Getting Hit By Football (Themeless)

Shaquille O'Neal with kids on the court during the Icy Hot & The Shaquille O'Neal Foundation launch latest Comebaq Court event, in partnership with Boys & Girls Club of Northeast Texas, on July 14, 2025 in Rockwall, Texas.

7-Down: They’re held by both Shaq and Lisa Leslie, for short

|Rick Kern/Getty Images for Icy Hot

We're ending the month—and the year!—with a challenging themeless puzzle. Keep an eye out for tricky clues and fun wordplay. This week's puzzle was constructed by Greg Snitkin and Glenn Davis, and edited by Hoang-Kim Vu. Greg is a dad with three small kids and a hedge fund accountant from South Orange, N.J. He was the captain of his high school soccer and track teams and can’t stop bragging about it. Glenn is a reformed sports blogger now working in the non-profit space. He and his wife live in New Jersey with two human children and two cats. He hopes this puzzle will be more fun than a football in the groin.

Defector crosswords, launched in partnership with our friends at AVCX, run every Monday. If you’re interested in submitting a puzzle to us, you can read our guidelines HERE.

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