Broncos’ Sean Payton has ‘respect’ for Seahawks’ Mike Macdonald after conversation

The air appears to have been cleared between the Seattle Seahawks’ Mike Macdonald and Denver Broncos’ Sean Payton.

A day after leaked comments by Macdonald about Payton made the rounds on social media, the Broncos coach confirmed that the two spoke Tuesday night and that Macdonald apologized.

“The conversation last night was good. I have a ton of respect for him and that’s it,” Payton said in a press conference Wednesday.

Macdonald said in his own press conference Wednesday that his comments about Payton weren’t intended to be made public. They were shared in a video that was recorded while the Seahawks coach was shooting an appearance on “In Depth with Graham Bensinger.” The video displayed a static camera shot of Macdonald talking to Bensinger with lighting equipment in view.

In the video, Macdonald said Payton is “not my biggest fan” and recalled a story of Payton accusing the Seahawks during Macdonald’s first season of cheating by using videos from Broncos training camp posted by fans publicly on social media for scouting purposes. The Seahawks beat the Broncos 26-20 in Macdonald’s first game as head coach in 2024.

Payton provided more context to that story from 2024 on Wednesday. He acknowledged he’s been in a situation himself dealing with something from several years prior, likely referring to a scandal from his time as New Orleans Saints coach that saw him suspended for the 2012 NFL season for a bounty program that was administered by his team from 2009-11. He also said the Broncos learned from the Seahawks’ utilization of fan-shot videos and changed their policy to disallow fans from filming at training camps.

“We spoke. Listen, (Macdonald) and I are good,” Payton said. “Lord knows, I’ve been in his position where you’re talking about something and… the story is three years ago. I’m sure my initial call to (Seahawks general manager John Schneider) wasn’t pleasant, but I would say this: talking with him it 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.

“… We did some research online of what was available and that’s kind of how we changed our policy. I’ve known John for 20 years, so it was an easy call to him and yeah, that’s really it.”

Payton added that his initial contact with the Seahawks in 2024 came before he knew all of the facts.

“I didn’t know, so obviously I called shooting before I started looking. And I can only do that with John, because again he’s someone I’ll have a beer with at the combine. I consider him a good friend,” Payton said.

While both Macdonald and Payton have said they’re on good standing with each other now, the story is likely to come back up soon as the Seahawks are set to visit the Broncos in an Oct. 15 Thursday Night Football contest.

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