Coaches behaving badly at midfield

Here's a tip for those postseason "Meet 'n' Greets:"

Don't slap Jim Schwartz on the back.

Already smarting from taking his first loss of the season to the underdog 49ers, the Detroit coach walked slowly onto the field at the conclusion of Sunday's 25-19 defeat.

San Francisco's Jim Harbaugh, a first-year NFL coach who still thinks he's playing for Michigan, came leaping across the field toward Schwartz, exuberantly pumping his right fist. Harbaugh then emphatically slapped Schwartz's hand and patted him on the back.

Something Harbaugh said must have angered Schwartz, who charged after him.

"I went to congratulate Coach Harbaugh and got shoved out of the way. I didn't expect an obscenity at that point," Schwartz said. "Obviously, when you win a game like that, you are excited, but there is a protocol."

Schwartz caught up to Harbaugh, bumping him shoulder-to-shoulder. Two more exchanges followed before officials got the teams separated and into the tunnel.

Harbaugh later admitted he was at fault.

"I was really revved up. That wasn't me, just shook his hand too hard," Harbaugh said. "That's on me. Handshake was too hard."

Maybe that's why Buddy Ryan would just run off the field with his players.

New Orleans coach Sean Payton tore the MCL and fractured the tibia in his left leg following a tackle on the sideline of the Saints loss to Tampa Bay.

Payton fell to the ground and got his leg caught underneath Saints tight end Jimmy Graham when he was tackled by a Bucs defender early in the first quarter.

Corey Peters, Atlanta's 305-pound defensive tackle, made a one-handed interception of a short pass by Carolina's Cam Newton.

And, as he later admitted, didn't know what to do.

"I kind of fell into it," Peters said. "It's a lot different than you imagine it in the sense that when you catch the ball, you freeze. 'Oh, I got the ball!' "

And after watching Assante Samuel all these years, you thought it was a snap!

The Steelers took Troy Polamalu out of their win over Jacksonville with "concussion-like symptoms," coach Mike Tomlin said.

Pittsburgh's defense - already missing James Harrison - Steelers struggled mightily without Polamalu in 2009. If he's out for any extended period, the defending AFC champions might be in trouble.

Packers linebacker A.J. Hawk apologized for making an obscene gesture in a victory over St. Louis. Hawk made the gesture toward the Packers sideline calling it a "running joke" with his teammates and said it "wasn't meant to get out there, for people to see."

In a stadium packed with 70,000 Cheeseheads? Most of them with a cellphone camera?

Nah - nobody would see anything.