Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald looks on in the fourth quarter against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium.
Matt Kartozian-Imagn Images
The Seattle Seahawks recently improved to 2-0 on the young 2026 NFL season with a blowout road win over the Arizona Cardinals. The Seahawks picked up this win despite playing without quarterback Sam Darnold, who was injured on the first drive of the season against the New England Patriots.
Recently, Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald revealed how he was almost accused of cheating by Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton earlier in his career.
“Fans will post plays from training camp on Twitter, so we took like a hundred plays from their training camp. We're scouting them. He got wind of it and he lost it. We won the game… he threatened to come out publicly and do a whole Patriots spygate type of thing… he thought it was a Michigan thing where we had a plant and the whole thing,” he said, per Ari Meirov of The 33rd Team on X, formerly Twitter, via Graham Bensinger.
Thankfully, nothing ended up coming of the non-scandal.
“Spygate” of course refers to the New England Patriots' illegal gathering of information about other teams' playbooks during the Bill Belichick and Tom Brady era, one of several instances in which the team fractured the rules in order to achieve their dynasty.
The Michigan football program, as Macdonald referenced, also had a similar scandal in recent years.
The accusation is especially rich coming from Payton, who was suspended for his role in the New Orleans Saints' bountygate scandal that put a major asterisk next to their 2009 championship.
Thankfully, it seems that the Seahawks have achieved their dominance through ethical means, a trend that has continued so far this year despite Darnold's injury.
The Seahawks will next hit the field on Sunday vs the Washington Commanders on the road.