Mike Macdonald says Sean Payton accused Seahawks of cheating in 2024, escalating their 'Cold War'

Payton still threatened to disclose this. Macdonald said the team then told him they would go to court. 

"He basically threatened to come out publicly and do a whole Patriot type of Spygate thing," Macdonald said. "I'm sitting there like, 'Oh my god. We didn't cheat.' They thought it was a Michigan thing where we had a plant and the whole thing. So, we had to counter with him and say, 'If you come out with this, we're going to sue you because it's not true.'" 

Payton subsequently dropped the issue. The entire ordeal made Macdonald feel like he was in a "Cold War."

The relationship between Payton and Macdonald may grow icier after these comments. The Broncos coach hasn't addressed them, but he should speak on them during his Wednesday news conference. 

Per Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio, Macdonald's team said this anecdote wasn't meant for "public consumption." Too late.

This adds another wrinkle to the Broncos-Seahawks Week 6 matchup on Prime Video's "Thursday Night Football" on Oct. 15 at Empower Field in Denver. Fans should've been circling the date before Macdonald went public with Payton's cheating accusation. 

Many Denver fans still despise Seattle, especially after the Seahawks fleeced the Broncos in the ill-fated Russell Wilson trade. In March 2022, the AFC squad traded five draft picks (including two first-rounders) and three players for the Super Bowl-winning QB. Denver released him in March 2024 after Wilson went 11-19 in two seasons with the franchise. The Broncos incurred a whopping $85M cap hit.  

Bo Nix has since replaced Wilson, but that hasn't dulled the sting of the trade or Super Bowl XLVIII. "TNF" analyst Richard Sherman, a former defensive back, starred for Seattle that season. He may mention Seattle's 43-8 blowout of Denver during the broadcast, making a fuming Broncos crowd even more irate.

If Amazon wants to keep yanking Broncos Country's chain, it should invite former Seahawks linebacker Brian Bosworth, who once nicknamed legendary Broncos QB John Elway "Mr. Ed" to mock the size of his teeth. 

Broncos supporters were already set to boo the Seahawks in Week 6. Expect them to turn up the noise after the revelation that Macdonald and Payton were once engaged in a "Cold War." The frigid relationship between the coaches could make this prime-time matchup resemble the battles the clubs waged in the '70s, '80s and '90s.