Mike Macdonald gave Graham Bensinger a supremely interesting account of the behind-the-scenes friction that Broncos coach Sean Payton generated in 2024.
The story was both revealing and utterly hilarious, and here were my three takeaways.
It made me like Macdonald more.
First, heading into the 2024 season opener, he had folks on his staff using video fans posted on Twitter to reconstruct some of the Broncos’ plays. Second, after Payton called Seahawks GM John Schneider to complain, Macdonald noted Payton wasn’t as loud in person as he had been on the phone. He did not, as the kids say, have the same energy.
Confirmed my priors on Payton.
The worst kind of petty tyrant, nice to people who can help him — especially with his image — and an absolute blowhard behind the scenes.
I’m glad I don’t have to pretend it’s a scandal that an NFL coach shared some (slightly petty) workplace gossip.
🎤 Hot mic
At some point this offseason, Mike Macdonald was interviewed by Graham Bensinger.
It’s a good interview that includes some revealing details about the doubts and fears Macdonald faced in his first year as Seahawks head coach.
When the full interview was uploaded to Graham Bensinger’s YouTube channel, it included an excerpt in which Macdonald discussed friction that occurred with Payton. I’m not going to embed the video here because of potential copyright considerations. I will, however, point you to ➡ this Twitter post that included the clip.
I’ll also include a transcript of the 2-minute segment:
Macdonald: So funny story about Sean Payton,
Bensinger: I like Sean a lot.
Macdonald: I’m not his biggest, uhhhh, he’s not my biggest fan. Is that right?
Bensinger: Oh no. Why?
Macdonald: So my first year, we played them our first game.
Fans will post plays from training camp on Twitter. So it’s like public knowledge. So we took like a hundred plays from their training camp.
Bensinger: Good for you.
Macdonald: We’re like scouting ‘em you know. So anyways, he got wind of it. It’s like middle of the season, and we won the game …
So he called John, he basically like threatened to come out publicly and do like a whole Patriot-like Spygate type of thing.
I’m sitting there like, ‘Oh my God!’ I’m like, ‘We didn’t cheat.’
He thought it was a Michigan thing where we had a plant and the whole thing.
So we had to like counter with him.
Bensinger: Oh really?
Macdonald: To say like, ‘Hey look, if you come out with this, we’re going to sue you because it’s not true.’ You know?
Bensinger: Did you ever talk to him one-on-one?
Macdonald: So he backed down, but he was like killing John, our GM. And John was telling me, ‘Like, did you?’ I was like, ‘Dude, no. What are you crazy? That’s not how we do business.’
So the season ends, and he let it go.
It was like the Cold War. He’s like, ‘I’m going to hit the button. I’m going to hit the button.’ And we’re like, ‘We’re going to hit the button.’ So none of us hit the button.
And so then I went for a run at the combine, and I’m getting out of the elevator at the Marriott there in Indy. And like sure as shit, as soon as I open the door, the floor that I’m at, here he comes in.
I was kind of like over him, and he like, ‘Hey coach.’ He totally backed down in that moment.
Let me pause here to acknowledge that this is a great story.
It’s more than just conflict between prominent coaches.
It captures the competitive zeal of pro football coaches, their paranoia, and the vendettas and threats occasionally lobbed between them.
As soon as I heard it, I knew that there was absolutely no way that Mike Macdonald thought that clip was going to be aired anywhere. I’m not sure if he knew it was being recorded.
I’m not proud of this reaction. It shows just how much I’ve internalized the standards and expectations of NFL coverage during my 15 years around the Seahawks.
Like a well-trained pet, I understood that Macdonald’s recounting of his friction with Payton was not the kind of thing media members are supposed to be served, let alone disseminate.
Over the past day, I’ve seen a great deal of discussion about the ethics of all this.
Reporters have been explaining the exact sourcing protocol. If you want something to be off the record you have to specify that beforehand, and that’s true.
But it’s also worth noting that none of this is legally binding. There’s no formal code of conduct or oath sworn.
It’s a matter of ethics, which means it’s only as good as the reporter’s word.
And that brings us to Bensinger.
I profess no expertise on the man himself. I know he first emerged in 2005 after an interview with wide receiver Terrell Owens led to the Eagles wide receiver being suspended for conduct detrimental to the team. More recently, I know one of the Paul morons brothers was furious at Bensinger because an interview they did was posted on Bensinger’s YouTube channel as opposed to Apple+, which is what the Paul moron brother in question said he’d been pitched on.
Now, I don’t know the circumstances under which Macdonald shared the story about Payton.
The Seahawks have indicated the coach didn’t intend this to be public. I’ve seen reports suggesting Macdonald may not have known he was being recorded at the time.
I consider it pretty telling that Bensinger, or one of his employees, has already edited this segment out of the interview and reposted it to Bensinger’s YouTube channel. If there was nothing underhanded about the way the clip was captured, why edit it out? It’s a great story.
But for me, what the story underscores most is how so many of the truly interesting things that happen within the league are kept out of sight.
I get it. They want to minimize distractions and avoid providing motivational fodder. It does make things a little less interesting, however.
And exhausting to talk about.
I confess, it was their fault
The Pittsburgh Steelers played a horrible, no good, very bad game on Sunday against the New England Patriots, losing 20-3.
And afterward, quarterback Aaron Rodgers took accountability.
Sort of:
“In a game like today where there wasn’t a lot of flow to it, we need to be better, and it starts with me at like making sure Mike [McCarthy] knows what’s working, what’s not working, our coaches know so we can call stuff that we feel like has a better chance.”
It’s actually pretty hilarious. When you boil it down, he has to get better at telling the coaches which of their plays suck.
It got me thinking about what it would be like if Aaron Rodgers conducted a press conference after a less-than-stellar dinner party: