Mike Macdonald says Sean Payton accused Seattle Seahawks of cheating behind scenes after 2024 contest
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - SEPTEMBER 08: Head coach Sean Payton of the Denver Broncos and head coach Mike Macdonald of the Seattle Seahawks shake hands after the game at Lumen Field on September 08, 2024 in Seattle, Washington. The Seahawks defeated the B (Alika Jenner / Getty Images)
The matchup between the Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos coming up on October 15 may have far more bad blood between the two teams than anyone realized.
Broncos head coach Sean Payton threatened to accuse Mike Macdonald and the Seahawks of cheating after learning that Seattle had scouted around 100 plays from Denver's training camp publicly available online.
The backstory:
Macdonald did a wide-ranging interview on In-Depth with Graham Bensinger prior to the start of the regular season, touching on his path to become an NFL head coach, how he met his wife, Stephanie, and the Seahawks' win in Super Bowl LX in February. However, it's a part of the discussion that didn't appear in the final interview that is getting the most attention.
"He's not my biggest fan," Macdonald said of Payton.
In a clip widely circulated on Twitter on Tuesday, Macdonald told Bensinger the details of the back-and-forth between the two teams following their meeting in Macdonald's first ever game as head coach in September 2024.
"Our first year, we play them our first game," Macdonald said. Fans will tape or post plays from training camp on Twitter. And so it's like public knowledge. We took like 100 plays from their training camp, and we're like scouting them."
Since Macdonald became head coach of the Seahawks in 2024, the team has tried to limit possible video reaching the internet from their training camp practices at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center. Announcements are regularly made on each day of practice open to fans. Once warm-ups and individual drills wrap up, a message of "to protect the team, no photos or videos are allowed for the remainder of practice." Signs are also located around the practice field with the same message.
Macdonald said that Payton learned of what the Seahawks had done and repeatedly reached out to Seahawks' general manager John Schneider, threatening to accuse them of cheating.
"He got wind of it and he like lost it," Macdonald said. "It's middle of the season and we won the game. And we're like in the fight our first year, a lot of s--- going on it. And so he called John (Schneider) and he basically like threatened to come out publicly and do like a whole Patriot-like Spygate type of thing. And I'm sitting there like ‘oh my god, we didn’t cheat!' He thought it was like a Michigan thing where we had a plant and the whole thing and so we had to like counter with him and say like ‘if you come out on this, we’re going to sue you because it's not true.'"
The ‘Spygate’ reference is to when it was discovered that the New England Patriots under head coach Bill Belichick were videotaping the signals of opposing team coaches, particularly the New York Jets, in 2007. Studying opposing team's signals is not inherently illegal, but the means by which the Patriots were doing so was.
Meanwhile, the ‘Michigan’ reference is to former University of Michigan coach Connor Stallions, who videotaped the signals of opposing coaches by purchasing tickets to games of future opponents and filming them from the stands. Macdonald served as the Michigan defensive coordinator for one season in 2021, which could certainly have fueled Payton's skepticism about Seattle's actions.
"He backed down but he was like killing John, our GM, and John was telling me like ‘dude, did you?’ and I was like ‘No! What are you crazy? That's not how we do business.'" Macdonald said. "Anyway, so the season ends and he let it go, but it was like the ‘Cold War.’ ‘I’m going to hit the button. I'm going to hit the button.' Then we're like ‘we’re going to hit the button.' So none of us hit the button."
Macdonald said he crossed paths with Payton at the scouting combine in Indianapolis after the events and the matter wasn't discussed.
Dig deeper:
The really curious thing is how exactly this specific clip came to be circulated publicly. The camera angle is a wide-angle shot that shows the multiple cameras and lights used for the sit-down interview between Macdonald and Bensinger. Crew members are tending to various pieces of equipment around the set as Macdonald is telling the story.
It certainly doesn't appear as though Macdonald believed he was speaking on the record at that point in time or that cameras were rolling. While the clip does include the "In-Depth with Graham Bensinger" watermark, the clip is not a part of the full-length interview on YouTube and Bensinger did not appear to put out the story as a separate clip.
It may not have been Macdonald's intention to share that story publicly, but it's definitely out in the open now. And it's going to make the Thursday Night Football matchup between the two teams in Week 6 that much more interesting.
The Source: Information in this story comes from In-Depth With Graham Bensinger and FOX 13 Seattle reporting.
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