Austin delivers for Steelers on MNF

Steelers coach Mike Tomlin pulled Calvin Austin III aside before the undersized wide receiver took the field for a punt return in the third quarter of a somewhat lifeless game against the Giants. The Steelers were scuffling. The offense was moving the ball, just not into the end zone. Tomlin knew the 5-foot-9, 162-pound Austin had come close to breaking a big return several times this season. And the NFL’s longest-tenured head coach had a feeling. “I thought it was his time,” Tomlin said. “And he thought it was his time. And he delivered.” Not once, but twice. Austin sprinted across the field and raced 73 yards for a TD after Tomlin’s little pep talk. He later added a 29-yard, over-the-shoulder scoring grab to give the Steelers the boost they needed to beat the Giants 26-18. The Steelers (6-2) won their 22nd straight home game under the Monday night lights behind Austin’s playmaking and a pair of late turnovers. T.J. Watt strip-sacked Daniel Jones with less than three minutes to go to end one Giants drive, and rookie cornerback Beanie Bishop picked Jones off with 42 seconds to play to end it. “It wasn’t as fluid as we’d like but that’s football,” Tomlin said. “We’ve got to guard against (caring about) style points.”

Anger management class for Jones

UFC heavyweight champion Jon “Bones” Jones has agreed to attend four hours of anger management classes to resolve a pair of misdemeanor charges stemming from a drug test at his New Mexico home in which he was accused of being hostile. A bench trial was set to begin Tuesday before a New Mexico judge, but a prosecutor and Jones’ defense attorney announced at the start of the virtual proceeding that an agreement had been reached. The charges of assault, a petty misdemeanor, and interference with communication, a misdemeanor, will be dismissed as along as Jones completes the anger management classes and follows all laws over the next 90 days. Jones had pleaded not guilty in July, and when the allegations first became public earlier this year, he called them baseless. He posted on social media that he had been taken off guard by what he called the unprofessionalism of one of the testers and acknowledged cursing after getting frustrated. Jones, 37, will face Stipe Miocic in UFC 309 on Nov. 16 at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

PGA Tour ponders eligibility changes

The PGA Tour is considering sweeping changes that would eliminate 25 cards through the FedEx Cup and shrink the size of fields, part of a plan to make golf’s biggest circuit even more competitive while reducing the time it takes to play and making it easier to watch. Proposed changes include cutting by 10 the tour cards awarded to Korn Ferry Tour players and doing away with the four Monday qualifying spots for fields smaller than 144 players. The proposal sent to players Tuesday was developed by the 16-member Player Advisory Council that has been crafting the changes since May. The driving force was to make a full PGA Tour card have real value. With so many eligible players — 125 from the FedEx Cup (or money list) had been the standard since 1983 — newcomers from the Korn Ferry Tour or Q-school often had to wait to see if there was room for them in tournaments. If approved by the PGA Tour board at its Nov. 18 meeting, changes would start in 2026. It would be the latest significant adjustment to the tour since the disruption of Saudi-backed LIV Golf, which began in June 2022. In the last two years, the tour has created $20 million signature events with limited fields and a postseason for only the top 70 players. —AP