Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald lured Sean Payton's name into a controversial conversation. To which Macdonald spent Wednesday clarifying regarding the Denver Broncos head coach.
Macdonald mentioned this Payton story in a now viral interview with “In Depth” with Graham Bensinger.
“Fans will post plays from training camp on Twitter, so we took like a hundred plays from their training camp. We're scouting them. He got wind of it and he lost it. We won the game… he threatened to come out publicly and do a whole [New England] Patriots spygate type of thing… he thought it was a Michigan thing where we had a plant and the whole thing,” Macdonald said.
#Seahawks HC Mike Macdonald says #Broncos HC Sean Payton threatened to accuse Seattle of a Spygate-style cheating scandal in 2024.
Macdonald says they found training camp clips on X and used them to their advantage when they played.
(📽️ @GrahamBensinger)pic.twitter.com/xzRv3J6xh2
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) September 22, 2026
The Patriots angle referenced then-head coach Bill Belichick encouraging his assistants to videotape opposing coaches' signals during games. Helping hand the Pats an edge on opponents. The Michigan scandal reference Connor Stalions, who became known as the “sign-stealer” which led to an eight-year NCAA ban for him.
But Macdonald cleared the air on the interview and what he meant to say.
“It's something that I didn't intend for public use,” Macdonald began. “I thought it was the most appropriate thing to reach out to Sean and really just apologize to him. And honestly, I've got to be better in that moment for understanding that I'm responsible for what I say no matter the circumstance. Whether if you're mic'd up or not.”
So Macdonald's interview was meant to be a private conversation. But Macdonald showed remorse in that moment for his words.