Super Bowl-winning coach reveals 'Cold War' with Broncos' Sean Payton over alleged spying | Matt Calkins

Seattle Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald didn't cheat. He took advantage of the Broncos' negligence. But apparently that's not the way Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton saw it.

During a recent interview with Graham Bensinger, Macdonald revealed that he and his staff found around 100 plays that fans had posted on X after filming Broncos training-camp practices in 2024. And given that Macdonald's first game of that season was against Denver, he scouted those plays in order to gain an advantage.

It worked. Seattle came out with a 26-20 win in Russell Wilson's first game back at Lumen Field.

Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald walks on the field after being doused following his team's win in the NFL Super Bowl 60 football game against the New England Patriots, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026, in Santa Clara, Calif. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

But apparently Payton didn't take too kindly to the Seahawks coaches' scouting tactics.

Macdonald told Bensinger that Payton found out about the plays they pulled from social media midway through the season and "lost his mind."

"He called [Seahawks general manager John Schnedier] and basically threatened to come out publicly and do a whole Patriots Spygate type of thing," Macdonald said. "And I'm sitting there like 'Oh my God, we didn't cheat!'"

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So why didn't Payton make it public? Because according to Macdonald, Schneider threatened to sue if he did. The result was what Macdonald described as a "Cold War" type standoff, with both teams keeping their fingers on the proverbial button without actually pressing it.

After the season, Macdonald said he ran into Payton at his Indianapolis hotel during the week of the NFL Combine. Preparing for confrontation, he instead got meekness, with Payton essentially acting like nothing had happened.

"I was kind of like over him, and he was just like, 'Hey coach,' and he totally backed down in that moment," Macdonald said. "I was like, 'Oh, man. That's great'."

Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton speaks during a news conference following the AFC Championship Game between the Denver Broncos and the New England Patriots in Denver, Colo., on Jan. 25, 2026. (Garrett W. Ellwood/AP Photo)

A couple things here. The first is that Macdonald didn't do anything wrong. This was nothing like Spygate, in which there was a deliberate attempt to circumvent the rules. This was just the Seahawks being savvy enough to know where to obtain plays that had been made public.

I don't know what the specific rules are regarding filming with the Broncos, but Seattle doesn't allow anyone to record camp practices after the individual periods have ended. That's called prudence. It's a rule all teams should have in place.

The second is that, assuming all this is true, it's another ding on Payton's reputation. This was a guy who was already suspended for the 2012 season due to the Saints' Bountygate scandal, in which the team paid players to knock targeted opponents out of the game.

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He took what appeared to be a swipe at his former quarterback Russell Wilson after Jaxson Dart replaced him as the Giants' quarterback, saying "I was talking to (Giants co-owner) John Mara not too long ago I said 'we were hoping that change would've happened long after our game."

Russell Wilson No. 3 of the Seattle Seahawks and wide receivers coach Kippy Brown talk to Golden Tate No. 81 during an NFL game against the Buffalo Bills at Rogers Centre on Dec. 16, 2012, in Toronto, Canada. (Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)

Now there seems to be a petty attempt to call out cheating when no cheating took place. 

"He's not my biggest fan," Macdonald said of Payton.

Of course, it would have been interesting to see if Macdonald would have been willing to tell this story a year ago at this time. Winning a Super Bowl gives you the cachet to say close to anything you please.

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Macdonald is on top now. And it doesn't look like he needed any shortcuts to get there.

Matt Calkins is a columnist for Outkick, where he focuses on the overlap between sports and culture. Before joining the Fox team, he spent 11 years as a sports columnist for the Seattle Times, where he extracted a two-word quote from Marshawn Lynch and got a Seahawks draft pick to design his apartment.Matt also served as a sports columnist at the San Diego Union Tribune after working as the Blazers beat writer for the Vancouver Columbian. You can follow him on X at matt_calkins.