“He thought it was a Michigan thing”: Mike Macdonald reveals Sean Payton threatening Seahawks with “spygate” scandal

Mike Macdonald has a crazy story to share about Sean Payton.

The Seattle Seahawks head coach was the interviewee on the latest episode of In Depth with Graham Bensinger, which dropped on Tuesday. During the interview, he revealed that Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton had accused him of cheating during preparations for their Week 1 matchup in 2024.

Apparently, Payton, himself no stranger to controversy thanks to “Bountygate”, had taken offense with fans filming the Broncos’ plays, which, at least to him, played a pivotal role in the Seahawks’ eventual 26-20 victory:

“He basically threatened to come out publicly and do a whole Patriot Spygate type of thing. 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.'”

That countersuit threat ultimately made Payton back down:

“The season ends, and he let it go. But it was like the Cold War. He’s like, ‘I’m going to hit the button. I’m going to hit the button.’ ‘Well, we’re going to hit the button.’ None of us hit the button.”

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Mike Macdonald gets candid on frustrations of hiring coaching staff

In the same conversation, Mike Macdonald expressed his honest thoughts on the process of hiring his assistants.

Having served under Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh in two different stints, he had initially wanted to take some fellow assistants with him to Seattle when he was named the Seahawks’ head coach in 2024. However, Harbaugh blocked the proposal.

It forced him to build his own staff from scratch, and that lack of rapport contributed to the Seahawks missing the playoffs. He reflected on the process as follows:

“I wish I came to him as I was going through the process and said, ‘Hey, I don’t know if this is going to happen, but this is what I’m thinking. These are the roles I want for these folks.’ … At that point, John had to look out for what was best for his team, too. I wasn’t exactly happy about it.”

2025 would prove to be Macdonald’s breakthrough. With Sam Darnold under center, the Seahawks went an NFC-best 14-3 and eventually won Super Bowl LX.