Jim Harbaugh spent much of last week taking issue with Green Bay Packers linebacker Clay Matthews' public comments.
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Following Matthews' performance in Sunday's 34-28 San Francisco win -- including his late hit against 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick -- Harbaugh wasn't done with the topic Monday.
"That young man works very hard on being a tough guy," the 49ers coach said of Matthews. "He'll have some repairing to do on his image after that slap."
Harbaugh made fun of how Matthews grappled with San Francisco offensive tackle Joe Staley after the linebacker's late hit on Kaepernick and the subsequent skirmish. The NFL since has admitted Staley shouldn't have been penalized.
"I looked at it with my own eyes, and I saw two punches thrown to Joe's head. Well, one punch and one open slap. Which if you're gonna go to the face, come with some knuckles, not an open slap," Harbaugh said.
Matthews faces a fine from the NFL for his late hit on Kaepernick, a league source told NFL Media Insider Ian Rapoport on Monday, and Harbaugh called the play "certainly a cheap shot."
"Colin scrambles out of bounds, you get the personal-foul play," Harbaugh began. "You talk about launching, you talk about a clothesline to the neck area when our quarterback is 6 to 7 feet out of bounds."
Packers coach Mike McCarthy responded to Harbaugh on Monday.
"Clay Matthews is not a dirty player by no means," McCarthy said. "I addressed Harbaugh's comments in the team meeting, and as always, we'll stay above it."
We love that Harbaugh won't let this issue die and it's probably driving McCarthy a little crazy. Harbaugh only stopped talking about Matthews when asked if he respected the linebacker.
"I don't really have any more comment about it," Harbaugh said.
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