FOXBORO — Rodney Harrison sent jaws dropping on Sunday night when he took a swipe at former teammate Tom Brady during NBC’s Football Night in America broadcast.

“Tom Brady, if you’re listening: take off the skirt and put on some slacks. Toughen up,” Harrison said with a smile on his face as he discussed the roughing-the-passer calls Baltimore received in the game against Brady and the Patriots.

Turns out, Harrison was joking, and in the wake of his tongue-in-cheek rant on Brady he can’t believe it was taken so seriously.

Harrison apparently sent Brady a text message beforehand to let him know he was going to take a swipe at him during the broadcast.

“Let me tell you something: no one has more respect for Tom Brady than me,” Harrison told the Boston Herald. “I’ve seen this guy. One thing I would never do with this guy is challenge his manhood. Tom is one of the toughest son of a guns I’ve ever been around. He’s like a brother to me, and we bust each other’s chops.

“If people think I was serious, it’s ridiculous.”

During his weekly Monday appearance on WEEI, Brady took his own jab at Harrison, saying, “Rodney’s been fined more than any player in the history of the NFL, so I can understand why he’s a little sensitive about cheap shots at the quarterback.”

He later said much the same thing that Harrison did: that the two are like brothers, won two Super Bowls together, and it is all in good fun.

Harrison, however, made it clear that he disagreed with the roughing-the-passer call the Ravens’ Terrell Suggs received for grazing Brady’s knee. Even Brady admitted that it was a bit of a cheap foul, but stressed after the game that he is all for the rules that protect defenseless quarterbacks.

In a short amount of time, Harrison has done plenty of pot-stirring in his new career as a broadcaster, but this wasn’t one of those occasions where he meant to.

Seau rumor heating up

Multiple reports on Sunday night declared that 40-year-old linebacker Junior Seau would rejoin the Patriots as early as this week, but if he is, Bill Belichick wasn’t about to let on.

Asked about Seau on Monday and whether there is any truth to the reports about him beginning his 20th season, Belichick gave a humorous non-comment.

“Well, I noticed he was doing some bull riding, bull stomping, or some bulls were stomping him, or whatever it was,” Belichick said with a smile, referring to Seau’s recent run-in with a bull while filming an episode for his reality show. “We’ll have to take a look at that workout and see how he looked doing that.”

Video of the bull running over Seau — the workout maven bounced back up and suffered only some bruises — has been a hit on the internet.

While he was in Boston last week for another episode of Sports Jobs with Junior Seau, in which he drove the Zamboni at the Bruins-Capitals game, Seau reportedly dropped by Gillette Stadium to take a physical.

Banta-Cain is reigning champ

New England has a tradition of honoring a handful of players after every win as practice players of the week, and this year has taken things a step further.

Assistant coach Pepper Johnson, who is in charge of running the scout team — or the “Dirty Show” as the Pats call it — had a WWE-type belt made up this season to award the player he chooses as having given the starters the best look in the days leading up to a victory.

During media access in the locker room on Monday, Tully Banta-Cain strode in wearing the belt. He told reporters that he had been chosen above Brandon Meriweather, Terdell Sands and Bret Lockett for the belt.

Brandon McGowan won the belt after the Pats’ win over Buffalo, and practice-squad defensive lineman Titus Adams had it at his locker last week after the win over Atlanta.

Quick kicks

Prescott Burgess wasn’t with the Patriots for very long. The young linebacker, whom New England traded to acquire from Baltimore two weeks ago, then released to make room for Sands, then re-signed to the practice squad, is reportedly headed back to the Ravens. Adam Caplan of scout.com on Monday wrote that Baltimore had signed Burgess to its 53-man roster after placing LB Brendon Ayanbadejo on injured reserve with a quadriceps injury suffered during Sunday’s game… NFL Network will air a condensed 90-minute replay of the Pats-Ravens game Tuesday night at 9:30.

smanza@projo.com