PALM BEACH, Fla. — Coach Bill Belichick and other members of the Patriots’ staff were interviewed by N.F.L. officials in the days after the Super Bowl in February as part of the league’s investigation into allegations that a former Patriots employee had videotaped an opponent’s walk-through before a previous Super Bowl.

Belichick, speaking to reporters Tuesday morning at the league’s annual meeting, said that he spoke to as many as five league officials in Foxborough, Mass., five days after the Patriots lost to the Giants on Feb. 3. The Patriots’ chairman, Robert K. Kraft, among others, was also questioned.

On the day before the Super Bowl, The Boston Herald reported that an unnamed person said the Patriots had videotaped the St. Louis Rams’ walk-through before the 2002 Super Bowl. The day the article was published, league officials interviewed three members of the Patriots’ staff at a hotel in Arizona: Scott Pioli, the head of player personnel; Jimmy Dee, the video director; and Stacey James, the vice president for media relations.

It was at least the second time Belichick had been questioned by the league about his videotaping practices since the Patriots were caught taping the Jets’ defensive signals during last season’s opener in September.

“I’ve answered so many questions so many times in so many ways from so many different people, I don’t know what else the league could ask,” he said.

“Whatever the allegations are, I’m confident that’s not true,” Belichick said. “I’ve never seen a tape of another team’s practice, ever, in 34 years of coaching, and certainly not that one.”

Commissioner Roger Goodell confirmed that the league went back to the Patriots after the new allegations surfaced. “We followed up on other things because certain things had been tossed out,” Goodell said.

Belichick and the Patriots’ videotaping incident have dominated much of the talk at these meetings, and both Kraft and Belichick addressed team owners and executives after Goodell spoke about the integrity of the game Tuesday morning.

Kraft stood before the group and said that the incident involving the Jets was not what the Patriots or his family were about and that his organization made a mistake. He pledged to make sure it did not happen again, and apologized. When he was finished, the room broke into applause.

“I felt it was very sincere and very heartfelt, and I appreciated what he had to say,” Colts Coach Tony Dungy said.

Belichick explained from his point of view what happened, but did not say he made a mistake and did not apologize. He also told reporters he had almost no interaction with Matt Walsh, a former Patriots employee who has intimated that he has evidence of the team’s videotaping practices. He said he never asked Walsh, or anyone else, to tape the Rams’ walk-through. “It totally came out of right field,” Belichick said of the allegation.

Belichick’s appearance here was highly anticipated because he rarely attends the annual coaches breakfast with reporters. But he seemed relaxed in answering questions about videotaping for about a half-hour. When he arrived at a table where a dozen reporters waited for him, Belichick joked about a potential rule change, “Want to talk about the force out?”

At the opposite end of the room sat Jets Coach Eric Mangini, whose team caught the Patriots videotaping in the first week and turned them in to the league. Their tables were originally next to each other until an official moved Mangini’s table a few minutes before the breakfast began.

During the session, Belichick offered his interpretation of the rule that prohibits videotaping. He said his reading was that the rule prohibits taping of defensive signals for same-game use. Even after a memo was sent before the 2006 season reminding clubs that videotaping defensive signals for use at any time was a violation, he said he thought he was still in compliance.

Belichick, perhaps trying to put the best possible spin on the embarrassing situation, said that getting caught helped the Patriots in the long run. They have streamlined and reorganized aspects of the organization — presumably those involving the video department — to “make sure a situation like this never comes up again,” he said.

The Patriots’ imbroglio had one tangible impact on the league, too: owners approved a measure to put a coach-to-defense signal-calling system into one defensive player’s helmet for next season. The measure had failed in two previous tries, last year by just two votes. This year, it passed with 25 teams in favor (the seven teams that voted against it have head coaches with offensive backgrounds), including the Patriots, who had previously voted against it.

The rule means that a designated player on defense, and one backup, will have the system in his helmet. Quarterbacks have had the system since 1994, but the radio system is not expected to eliminate defensive signaling entirely because many teams — including the Patriots — rarely have one player on the field for every defensive snap, and the system will be cut off with 15 seconds remaining on the play clock.

EXTRA POINTS

The “hair rule” — the proposal by the Kansas City Chiefs that a player’s hair should not be allowed to cover the name and number on his jersey — was set aside until at least the May meeting so that players could be consulted.