The Week 6 game between the Broncos and Seahawks has gained a new subplot.

During an appearance on In Depth with Graham Bensinger, Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald recounted a story involving Broncos head coach Sean Payton from his first season in Seattle. The Seahawks played the Broncos in Week 1 that year and Macdonald said that the team’s staff collected fan videos posted to social media from Broncos practices as part of their preparation because they were “public knowledge.”

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The Seahawks won 26-20 and Macdonald said Payton “got wind of” how they used the videos in the middle of the season. Payton called Seahawks General Manager John Schneider and, per Macdonald, “lost it.”

“He basically threatened to come out publicly and do a whole Patriot Spygate type of thing,” Macdonald said. “I’m sitting there like, ‘Oh my god. We didn’t cheat.’ They thought it was a Michigan thing where we had a plant and the whole thing. 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.'”

Macdonald said that Payton eventually dropped the issue, but that it felt like the two teams were involved in something more geopolitical than football until that happened.

“It was like the Cold War,” Macdonald said. “He’s like, ‘I’m going to hit the button. I’m going to hit the button.’ ‘Well, we’re going to hit the button.’ None of us hit the button.”

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Macdonald said he and Payton subsequently crossed paths at the Scouting Combine, but the issue didn’t come up. Payton will likely be asked about his version of events at some point before the Week 6 meeting between the teams.