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Bill Belichick says he had ‘no knowledge’ of Patriots filming Bengals’ sidelines

Bill Belichick reiterated the separation between the football operations and content production teams during his teleconference on Tuesday. John Tlumacki/Globe Staff/Globe Staff

Patriots coach Bill Belichick reiterated Tuesday morning that he had no prior knowledge of the situation involving a Kraft Sports Production video crew filming during Sunday’s Bengals-Browns game.

Belichick said in a conference call he learned on Monday afternoon that a complaint had been filed against the team, but said multiple times he was not previously aware of the incident that the NFL is now investigating.

“I had no idea what it was about,” Belichick said. “And then I got an explanation. I think the organization released that explanation or something similar to that. That’s really all I know about it.”

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The Patriots released a lengthy statement Monday night that said the organization sent a three-person video crew to the Bengals-Browns game to capture footage for a behind-the-scenes feature on a pro personnel scout. The Patriots acknowledged the crew violated league rules — unknowingly, they say — by filming the field and sideline from the press box. According to The Athletic, the tape includes eight minutes of footage focused on Cincinnati’s sideline.

“The sole purpose of the filming was to provide an illustration of an advance scout at work on the road,” read the club’s statement. “There was no intention of using the footage for any other purpose.”

Belichick would not say whether he’s spoken to anyone on the content team and indicated the matter is being handled internally. Echoing the statement, Belichick further emphasized that football operations is a separate entity from content production.

“Again, I have no involvement of this, no knowledge of it,” he said. “I really don’t have any idea of what exactly is going on. I can tell you we, as a coaching staff and I personally, have never used any video footage at all of anything those production people have done, other than what’s shown on public television or something like that. We don’t have anything to do with what they do. So, I really don’t have any knowledge of the situation at all.”

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