Seattle Seahawks’ Week 1 win over the Denver Broncos in 2024 was unforgettable, as a 26-20 victory gave Mike Macdonald his first win as an NFL head coach. Now, the head coach has revealed that the “funny story” behind that win almost became a legal battle with head coach Sean Payton and the Broncos.
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“Funny Story about Sean Payton. I’m not his – he’s not my biggest fan. So, [my] first year, and we play them our first game. I’m like, whatever. So, fans watch, and fans will tape or post plays from training camp on Twitter. And so it’s public. So we took like a hundred plays from their training camp,” said Macdonald on the In Depth with Graham Bensinger podcast.
Macdonald explained on the podcast that Seattle’s scouting staff gathered almost 100 plays the Broncos ran during training camp as they reviewed the footage that fans had already posted on social media ahead of the Week 1 matchup in 2024. While the Seahawks secured a 26-20 victory, Payton and company eventually caught wind of the strategy.
“We’re like scouting them, and anyways, he got wind of it. And he lost it. And it’s the middle of the season, and we won the game. We were in the fight, our first year; we were trying to f—–g go on. And so he called Johnny, basically, threatened to come out publicly and do a whole Patriot, like, spygate type of thing,” Macdonald added.
“I’m sitting 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.'”
Payton somehow became aware of the scouting activity and contacted Seahawks GM John Schneider directly, threatening to do like the NFL’s 2007 Spygate scandal type of thing, which involved the New England Patriots. The Seahawks replied to Payton’s threat by warning him of the legal consequences. Ultimately, Payton let it go.
According to Matt Sullivan of Sporting News, the videos did not violate any NFL policy. The video in question came from training camp sessions that are open to the public and posted online by fans under current league rules.
“So he backed down, but he was like, killing John, our GM. And John was telling me, dude, did you — I’m like, dude, no. Like, are you crazy? That’s not how we do business, you know? So anyway, the season ends, and he let it go,” said Macdonald.
The NFL has put no restrictions on teams from viewing such videos. Neither the Seahawks nor the Broncos’ head coach issued a separate public statement confirming the alleged phone call. But Macdonald defined that whole situation as a “cold war” between the two teams.
With Seattle and Denver set to face each other in Week 6 of the 2026 season, Macdonald’s story highlights how fiercely NFL teams guard information and how easily public fan footage can spark coaching rivalries.