Seattle Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald apologized to Denver Broncos counterpart Sean Payton after comments Macdonald believed were private surfaced publicly this week.
Macdonald said Wednesday that he called Payton Tuesday night after a clip from an interview with Graham Bensinger circulated on social media. The discussion centered on a dispute over Seattle’s preparation for its 2024 season opener against Denver.
“It’s something that I didn’t intend for public use,” Macdonald said. “But I felt like it was the most appropriate thing to reach out to Sean and really just apologize to him.”
Payton confirmed the conversation and indicated there was no lingering issue between the coaches.
“We spoke. He and I are good. Lord knows I’ve been in his position,” Payton said Wednesday. “It allowed us to figure out how to handle our training camp relative to just videos. I don’t think anything was intentional by fans, but at first, you’re kind of thinking, ‘How could…’ Then we did some research online of what was available, and that’s kind of how we changed our policy.”
During the interview, Macdonald recalled that Payton learned after the 2024 opener that Seattle had used fan-recorded videos from Broncos training camp while preparing for the Week 1 meeting.
According to Macdonald, the Seahawks had scouted about 100 plays taken by spectators at Denver’s open training camp practices and posted publicly on social media. In addition, he said that Payton initially suspected Seattle had planted someone at the practices and threatened to publicly raise a Spygate-style cheating accusation.
Macdonald said Seattle denied cheating and countered that it would sue if Payton publicly made the accusation. Payton ultimately dropped the issue.
Macdonald said his conversation with Bensinger occurred over the summer and that he believed he was speaking informally before the interview began.
He nevertheless accepted responsibility for his remarks.
“I’ve got to be better in that moment,” Macdonald said. “I’m responsible for what I say really no matter the circumstance.”
Macdonald added that Payton handled Tuesday’s apology well and said he has considerable respect for the veteran coach.
The Seahawks and Broncos are scheduled to meet in Denver in Week 6.
