Jim Harbaugh suggested Clay Matthews' image took a hit following his late hit on Colin Kaepernick that escalated when Joe Staley came to defense of his quarterback.

“I could see two punches thrown to Joe’s head -- well, one punch and one open slap, which . . . if you’re going to go to the face, come with some knuckles. I think that young man works very hard on being a tough guy. He’ll have some repairing to do to his image after the slap.”

Harbaugh said the play evoked memories of Hall of Fame defensive back Emlen Tunnell, who played for the New York Giants from 1948 to ’58 during a time when that play was commonplace.

“Back when that was legal, he would stand in the middle of the field and wait for receivers to cross and he’d clothesline them and their feet would fly up the air and their backs would hit the ground,” Harbaugh said.