Sean Payton addresses Mike Macdonald’s hot mic moment

Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton has seen the clip, and he doesn’t care.

On Monday, Graham Bensinger posted an exclusive interview with Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald to YouTube, as part of his In Depth with Graham Bensinger series.

Macdonald opened up about his entire life — and Jim Harbaugh and Jim Carrey impressions? — during a conversation that lasted an hour and 45 minutes. It was a rare glimpse into the leader of the reigning Super Bowl champions, but Macdonald’s revealing personal anecdotes have been overshadowed by a story Macdonald never intended the public to hear.

Macdonald talked about Payton, whom Macdonald described as “not my biggest fan,” during what he presumed was a private exchange with Bensinger.

Mike MacDonald talking about a “behind the scenes cold war” between Sean Peyton’s Broncos and Mike’s Seahawks. It was over the use Twitter videos of the Broncos training camp reps by the Seahawks prior to their week 1 matchup in 2024.

( video from @GrahamBensinger ) pic.twitter.com/cRyX7WnZQt

— Nikko (@LegionBoomerTN) September 22, 2026

“We play [the Broncos] our first game,” Macdonald said in the now-viral clip. “Fans will tape or post plays from training camp on Twitter, and so it’s like public knowledge. And so, we took, like, 100 plays from their training camp. We’re scouting them. Anyway, he got wind of it, and he lost it.”

Macdonald disclosed that Payton called Seahawks general manager John Schneider and “threatened to do a whole Patriot ‘Spygate’ type of thing,” which the Seahawks countered with a threat to sue if Payton publicly alleged they’d cheated. Eventually, Macdonald said, Payton let it go.

On Tuesday night, Mike Florio reported that the Seahawks “didn’t even know that portion of the ‘more off than on’ the record discussion had been recorded” until the clip went viral.

Macdonald addressed the unexpected saga during his Wednesday press conference.

“It’s something that I didn’t intend for public use,” Macdonald said. “But I thought it was the most appropriate thing to reach out to Sean and really just apologize to him for having that end up be public where it wasn’t meant to.”

Payton had no trouble letting this one go, at least publicly.

“We spoke,” Payton told Denver media at his Wednesday presser. “He and I are good. Lord knows I’ve been in his position where you’re talking about something — the story is three years ago.”

Payton shared his recollection of what happened, which mirrored Macdonald’s version, and expressed “a ton of respect” for Macdonald and the Seahawks organization.

#Broncos HC Sean Payton says he and #Seahawks HC Mike Macdonald are “good” and that the incident actually taught Denver how to better handle training camp with so many videos being made public by fans.

“It helped us to some degree. … The conversation last night was good.” https://t.co/6qiadnwHjZpic.twitter.com/wwZMTSpwsS

— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) September 23, 2026

For his part, Macdonald also expressed immense respect for Payton and reconciled the past 24 hours as “a lesson learned.”

“I’ve got to be better in that moment for understanding — look, I’m responsible for what I say. Really, no matter the circumstance,” he said. “Whether you’re mic’d up, whether you’re not, whether you have a certain type of understanding. I fell short in that moment. It stings for me, frankly, but it’s something that I’m definitely gonna learn from. It’s just a good example that we’ve got to take responsibility for the things that we say.”

Macdonald confirmed that he believed he was just casually bantering with Bensinger before the interview officially started. When asked whether it was “OK if this is all on the record,” Macdonald flashed an awkward smile. “Um, I think it’s fair to say if I’m talking, I’m responsible for what I’m saying,” Macdonald said.

Macdonald and Payton seem to have already moved on, but it will be interesting to see if this alters how Macdonald, already among the NFL’s most introverted coaches, engages with the media moving forward. If nothing else, he’s coming away with some excellent media teach tape for his players.

The post Sean Payton addresses Mike Macdonald’s hot mic moment appeared first on Awful Announcing.