Mike Macdonald interview clip recounts back and forth with Broncos Head Coach Sean Payton

There's a lot to unpack here.

Let's start with what happened.

A clip featuring Seahawks Head Coach Mike Macdonald on "In Depth with Graham Bensinger" went viral when a fan on X posted a certain clip from that conversation.

After millions of views of that X post, that part of the interview with Bensinger no longer appeared on the full interview segment.

You can still catch parts of the interview that take a look at Mike's football background and family dynamics, but the story of the disagreement with Payton is no longer in the full clip.

It has led to online speculation from fans, and even ESPN and The Athletic, about whether or not Macdonald knew he was on the record.

Or, at the very least, why that portion of the interview no longer exists in the "full interview."

In fact, eagle-eyed viewers can see that the full interview on Bensinger's YouTube page still (as of 11:40 p.m. Tuesday night) has a chapter listed for the "Payton Spygate Feud" as the opening part of the conversation, but the first topic you actually see and hear in the interview is for the chapter below 'The word "chatch" & Harbaugh impressions'.

So all of that is a story in itself.

Then comes what was actually said in the part of the clip that no longer exists.

Macdonald says Broncos fans had posted "like 100" plays from training camp on X/Twitter, so the team watched those videos, just like anyone else in the world with a smartphone had access to.

"Fans will post plays from training camp on Twitter, so it's like public knowledge. We took like 100 plays from their training camp. We were scouting them," Macdonald said, adding, "He (Payton) got wind of it and lost it"

To be clear, watching a video that is posted publicly on a social media platform is perfectly legal and acceptable in every way.

Macdonald describes what became something of a "cold war" that developed between Payton and the Seahawks.

"So, he called John (Schneider, Seahawks General Manager). He basically threatened to come out publicly and do a whole Patriot Spygate type of thing." Macdonald went on to say, "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.'"

Hence the "Cold War" description.

Eventually Payton backed down from it, according to Macdonald, and Mike described later running into Payton at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis, where Payton simply said, "Hi, coach!"

The clip got so much attention, just because it's the sort of juicy behind-the-scenes stuff you never would otherwise hear. And of course, that attention never wavered because of the apparent removal of that story from the full interview.

Mike Macdonald is scheduled to speak with reporters Wednesday for his regularly scheduled press conference ahead of Sunday's game at the Washington Commanders.