Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald said Wednesday he has apologized to Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton for publicly revealing a private dispute over an alleged filming violation between the two teams in 2024.
The apology wasn’t for the underlying accusation itself, but for the fact that the story became public at all. Macdonald had described the episode on the “In Depth With Graham Bensinger” podcast, apparently without expecting the details to circulate.
“It’s something that I didn’t intend for public use but you know, it just felt like it was the most appropriate thing to reach out to Sean and really just apologize to him for having that end up being public where it wasn’t meant to,” Macdonald said. “You’re kind of, something that they have to deal with in real time that wasn’t really on their end. So that’s really where you’re like, ‘Crap!'”
According to Macdonald’s account on the podcast, the Seahawks obtained roughly 100 plays of video from fans who attended Broncos training camp practices in 2024, using the footage to scout Denver ahead of a matchup.
“We took like 100 plays from their training camp. We were scouting them,” Macdonald said.
Payton reportedly learned that the Seahawks had reviewed some of the Broncos’ practice plays and called Seahawks general manager John Schneider. Macdonald described Payton as having “lost it.”
“He basically threatened to come out publicly and do a whole Patriot Spygate-type of thing,” Macdonald said.
Macdonald said the Broncos apparently suspected the Seahawks had planted someone inside their camp, similar to a scandal involving Michigan’s football program. Seattle denied any wrongdoing and pushed back with a legal threat of its own.
“I’m sitting there like, ‘Oh my God. We didn’t cheat.’ They thought it was a Michigan thing where we had a plant and the whole thing. So, we had to counter with him and say, ‘If you come out with this, we’re going to sue you because it’s not true,'” Macdonald said.
Payton and the Broncos never followed through on a threat to report Seattle to the NFL for violating league filming rules, but the exchange left tension between the two coaches. Once the story went public via the podcast, Macdonald called Payton directly to apologize for the leak.
“Sean was great,” Macdonald said. “I’ll say, I respect the heck out of him and his program. Always have. He’s a phenomenal football coach. It’s been great to get to know him at the owners meetings the last couple years. And he was awesome. So I know we’re both looking forward to moving forward from it, but I really appreciate how he handled it.”
Macdonald acknowledged the episode as a lesson in discretion.
“It’s a lesson learned,” Macdonald said. “You know, honestly, I got to be better in that moment for understanding, like, I’m responsible for what I say, really, no matter the circumstance – whether you’re mic’d up, whether or not you have some certain type of understanding. So I fell short in that moment … It stings for me, frankly, but it’s something that I’m definitely going to learn from.”
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