Seattle coach Mike Macdonald called Denver coach Sean Payton on Tuesday to apologize for recent comments in which he relayed a story about Payton accusing the Seahawks of cheating in 2024.
Macdonald told reporters in Seattle on Wednesday that he believed he was in an off-the-record manner before a nearly two-hour sit-down interview recently when he told a story about Payton and the Broncos accusing Macdonald and the Seahawks of cheating ahead of their 2024 season-opening matchup.
“It’s something 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 just apologize to him for that to end up being public where it wasn’t meant to.”
Payton said he and Macdonald are “good,” and that they had a good talk.
“I have a ton of respect for him,” Macdonald said.
Macdonald said in the original interview that his team had pulled “like 100 plays” of Denver’s from videos posted by fans in training camp before that game, which was Macdonald’s first as the Seahawks’ coach and Bo Nix’s first start as a rookie quarterback.
Payton caught wind later in the season, confronted Seattle general manager John Schneider about it and, according to Macdonald, believed Seattle had put a scout or a “plant” in Denver’s training camp stands to film practice. Payton threatened to go public with his allegations and Seattle countered by threatening to sue, Macdonald said.
Payton said Wednesday that how he heard of Seattle’s film repository from their camp was “unimportant” but said when it happened he didn’t know Macdonald. He had known Schneider for 20 years, though, and said his initial call to the general manager “wasn’t pleasant.”
“Obviously I called shootin’ before I started lookin’,” Payton said with a laugh. “I could only do that with John because he’s someone I’d have a beer with at the ombine. I consider him a good friend.”
Ultimately, though, the situation drove Denver to limit and monitor what fans could record and photograph during camp.
“Talking to him allowed us to figure out how to handle our training camp relative to just videos and I don’t think anything was intentional by fans,” Payton said. “At first you’re kind of thinking, man, how could (they have our plays)? And then we did some research online of what was available and that’s kind of how we changed our policy.”
The Seahawks coach said he felt bad for putting Payton and the Broncos in a position where they had to deal with the fallout from the comments.
“That’s where you’re like, ‘Crap,’” he said. “It’s a lesson learned. Honestly, I’ve got to be better in that moment for understanding that, look, I’m responsible for what I say, really, no matter the circumstance. Whether I’m mic’d up or not, whether you have a certain type of understanding.
“I fell short in that moment. It stings for me, frankly, but itap something I’m definitely going to learn from.”
Macdonald acknowledged that he told the story to Bensinger before the formal part of the interview started. He said itap “not important” how or why the footage ended up circulating on social media.
Macdonald, who won a Super Bowl at the end of his second season as a head coach in Seattle, said Payton was “great” when he called to apologize.
“I’ll say, I respect the heck out of him and his program,” Macdonald said. “Always have. He’s a phenomenal football coach. It’s been great to get to know him at the owners’ meetings the past couple years. …
“I really appreciate how he handled it.”
Payton had at least one reason for his understanding response this week.
“Lord knows I’ve been in that position,” Payton said.
