The man behind the viral Mike Macdonald clip is giving his side of the story.
After a video of the Seahawks coach explaining his 2024 beef with Broncos counterpart Sean Payton sent the NFL landscape into a frenzy this week, Graham Bensinger — whose “In Depth” show produced the clip — explained how it all happened.
“The complete Mike Macdonald interview, including the conversation now at issue, was provided to Seahawks PR last Wednesday, Sept. 16 — five days before it was published on YouTube [on] Monday,” Bensinger wrote in a statement posted to X. “During that time, no concern was raised about the exchange, and we were never asked to remove it. For the last couple of years, our typical practice with long-form interview releases has been to include some of the pre-interview conversation.
“Coach Macdonald reached out to me directly yesterday morning expressing concern. I immediately told him we would remove that portion, and we did. Unfortunately, it had already been clipped from our interview by online outlets and circulated elsewhere. I told Coach, in hindsight, I regretted allowing that exchange to be included and that it was my error in judgment.”
In the video, Macdonald details a feud with Payton that started over the Seahawks using social media videos posted by fans at practice to game plan for Denver. Payton accused Macdonald of spying.
The coaches both addressed the fallout on Wednesday, noting that they’ve buried the hatchet.
Macdonald said he’d learned his lesson from the now-viral incident.
“It’s something that I didn’t intend for public use,” Macdonald told reporters. “But I felt like it was the most appropriate thing to reach out to Sean and really just apologize to him for having that end up be public where it wasn’t meant to. It’s something that they have to deal with in real time. It wasn’t really on their end. So, that’s where you’re really like, ‘Crap.’ But it’s a lesson learned, honestly.”
For his part, Payton said it was all in the past.
“He and I are good,” the Broncos coach said after Wednesday’s practice. “Lord knows I’ve been in his position, you know, you’re talking about something. The story is about three years ago.”
Payton said the Denver organization has since changed their rules regarding what fans attending practice can post to social media.
“It helped us,” Payton said, “to some degree.”
The whole sage is still a teaching point — for all involved.
“I’ve got to be better in that moment for understanding — look, I’m responsible for what I say,” Macdonald said. “Really, no matter the circumstance. Whether you’re mic’d up, whether you’re not, whether you have a certain type of understanding. I fell short in that moment. It stings for me, frankly, but it’s something that I’m definitely gonna learn from. It’s just a good example that we’ve got to take responsibility for the things that we say.”
While it seems everyone wants to put it in the past, the incident is sure to be a talking point heading into the Seahawks-Broncos matchup on Oct. 15 — a nationally televised “Monday Night Football” tilt.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: nypost.com
