MINNEAPOLIS -- Steve Spagnuolo wants to clear something up: He wasn't accusing the Patriots of cheating in Super Bowl XXXIX.

Spagnuolo appeared on Philadelphia radio station 97.5 The Fanatic on Monday and he said that he believes the Patriots knew the Eagles' defensive signals in their Super Bowl matchup in 2005. But Spagnuolo, who was the Eagles' linebackers coach at the time, said on Wednesday that he wasn't accusing the Patriots of cheating.

"First of all, it's not illegal to get a bead on signals," Spagnuolo told NJ Advance Media on radio row at the Super Bowl. "There's nothing illegal about that. That's part of the game. The conversation was, 'Steve, when you played in Super Bowl 42, you had also played the Patriots in 39, did you learn anything from that?' My comment was that, 'Yeah, I learned that you've got to be careful with your signaling.' So that whole season, we had two signal callers. That's what that was. I wasn't passing judgment on anybody. It was just, 'What did you learn from Super Bowl 39 to Super Bowl 42?' "

The Patriots beat the Eagles, 24-21, in Super Bowl XXXIX. Spagnuolo got revenge as the Giants' defensive coordinator in Super Bowl XLII, devising a game plan that resulted in a 17-14 upset of the undefeated Patriots.

The Patriots came under fire for videotaping opponents' signals in the Spygate scandal that surfaced in 2007. Spagnuolo didn't make any accusations about the Patriots using video to learn the Eagles' signals.

"There was nothing even said about that," Spagnuolo said. "Again, there's nothing illegal. Major League Baseball is the same thing. It had nothing to do with that, but they wanted to carry it that way."

Spagnuolo said he learned a valuable lesson from Super Bowl XXXIX.

"When we played that Philadelphia game and got beat, nobody felt that way," Spagnuolo said of cheating suspicions. "Now, we thought maybe they were getting the signals, but that's part of the game. We just needed to do a better job of hiding it. (Spygate) wasn't until two and a half years later - I was gone by then - but I'm sure all of Philadelphia was saying, 'Hmm.' But my point was that I learned to make sure you have two signal callers because they're really good at picking that stuff up. But that's part of football."

Dan Duggan may be reached at dduggan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @DDuggan21. Find our Giants coverage on Facebook.