Mike Macdonald says Broncos accused Seahawks of cheating in 2024, nearly prompted lawsuit

Mike Macdonald told an interview that the Denver Broncos accused the Seattle Seahawks of cheating after the Seahawks beat Denver 26-20 in the 2024 season opener, and that the accusation nearly produced a lawsuit.

Macdonald, speaking to Graham Bensinger, framed the episode as arising from his staff using publicly available clips on Twitter — "Fans will tape and post plays from training camp on Twitter, so it's public knowledge," he said — and taking roughly 100 plays from Denver's training-camp posts to prepare for the game.

Macdonald said the preparation paid off in the field: Seahawks defenders forced three turnovers and held the Broncos to 231 yards in what Macdonald described as his first game ever as a head coach. He told Bensinger that Broncos coach Sean Payton "got wind of it and he lost it," and that the matter nearly escalated into litigation when Denver accused Seattle of cheating.

The account Macdonald gave places the sequence as preparation using public material, on-field success for Seattle in a 26-20 road win, then a complaint from the Broncos' side that Macdonald said almost led to a lawsuit.

Macdonald characterised the personal side of the dispute with a short remark about Payton: "He's not my biggest fan." CBS Sports published Macdonald's recounting of the episode and noted that the Seahawks' Week 1 defensive performance included three takeaways and limited Denver to 231 yards.

Macdonald emphasised that his staff relied on Twitter-posted training-camp clips as a source of plays, saying the footage was public and that they extracted about 100 plays for study. Macdonald's telling appears in the Bensinger interview rather than in an on-field statement, and CBS Sports reported the story as Macdonald described it.

The available account does not include a public response from the Denver Broncos or from Sean Payton beyond Macdonald's description of Payton's reaction. The episode matters in part because Macdonald said it occurred in his first game as a head coach and because he described a near-legal dispute between two high-profile coaching staffs.

CBS Sports' version leaves unresolved whether the Broncos' complaint was pursued formally; Macdonald reported that the accusation "almost" prompted a lawsuit but did not say legal papers were filed.