Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald revealed in his recent interview with Graham Bensinger that Sean Payton of the Denver Broncos almost publicly accused the team of cheating in the 2024 season. Macdonald admitted to seeing around 100 plays posted by Broncos fans of Denver’s training camp session, which the Seahawks used as tape to plan against them.
Macdonald said, “It’s like public knowledge. So we took like 100 plays from their training camp.”
The Seahawks won the game against the Broncos 26-20, Macdonald’s first victory as head coach in Seattle. Afterwards, Payton shortly learned about the social media posts that the Seahawks used. He accused Seattle of breaking the rules, comparing their acts to the New England Patriots and the University of Michigan. Those controversies would be the Spygate saga and the sign-stealing scandal respectively.
Macdonald continued, “He got wind of it, and he lost it. He called (Seahawks general manager) John (Schneider). He basically threatened to come out publicly and do a whole Patriot, like Spygate type of thing. And I’m sitting there thinking, ‘Oh my God, we didn’t cheat.’ He thought it was a Michigan thing, or we had a plant. So we had to counter with him to say, ‘Hey, look, if you come out with this, we’re going to sue you, because it’s not true.’ … He backed down, but he was killing John, our GM.”
Seattle Seahawks Mike Macdonald Was Accused of Cheating by Denver Broncos Sean Payton
As the 2024 NFL season progressed, eventually both sides let the issue conclude, but there was Cold War equivalent hostility present.
Macdonald said, “The season ends, and he let it go, but it was like the Cold War. He’s like, ‘I’m gonna hit the button, I’m gonna hit the button.’ We’re like, ‘Well, we’re gonna hit the button.’ So none of us hit the button.”
Recently, the Denver Broncos have instituted policies against fans filming plays at training camp. They put up “protect our plays” signs. Also, the organization hired security to enforce those new rules. The Seattle Seahawks have a similar policy as well for their own training camp sessions available to the public. This has become standard practice around the NFL.
Chasing Edges Applies to Every Factor of the Seahawks Franchise
While this saga was probably not ideal for Macdonald’s first year as head coach, it shows how much he is willing to push boundaries to succeed at this level. The Seattle Seahawks are proud of their mantra “chasing edges,” and those feelings emanate throughout the organization from the coaches, executives, and players. The Seattle Seahawks will meet the Denver Broncos later this season, and it will be interesting to see if this issue arises again. The Denver Broncos and Sean Payton have yet to comment on this.
Seattle Seahawks Almost Accused of Cheating by Denver Broncos