Matt Suhey, the bruising Chicago Bears fullback who cleared a path for Hall of Fame running back Walter Payton for eight seasons and scored the opening touchdown of Super Bowl XX, died on Sunday, September 6, 2026. He was 68.
The Bears confirmed his death and provided no further details. The Lake County Coroner’s Office said Suhey died of natural causes. “Our preliminary investigation indicated that Mr. Suhey had a significant medical history and was being treated by a primary care physician (PCP),” said chief deputy Steve Newton.
Officials said Suhey was found dead at his home in Deerfield, Illinois, on Sunday, September 6. A coroner’s office spokesperson said an initial police probe “revealed that there were no suspicious circumstances” surrounding his death.
Teammates were caught off guard by the news, in part because Suhey had looked healthy in recent weeks. Former Bears safety Gary Fencik had been trying to set a date for breakfast with him. “It was out of the blue,” Fencik said. Fencik told the Daily Herald: “You could almost interpret how the offense felt by going through Matt. Just a real valuable teammate and one that, gosh, this was a real shock to all of us.”
The First Touchdown in New Orleans
Suhey’s signature moment came in New Orleans on January 26, 1986, when he broke loose in the first quarter of Super Bowl XX for an 11-yard scoring run — the first touchdown of a 46-10 rout of the New England Patriots. He ran 11 times for 52 yards that afternoon and added a 24-yard catch. The title is still the only Lombardi Trophy the franchise has won.
Blocking was not his only contribution that year. Suhey ranked second on the team in rushing with 471 yards as Chicago went 15-1, behind only Payton, who ran for 1,551 yards and nine touchdowns. The New York Giants and the Los Angeles Rams were both shut out by Chicago in the playoffs before New England was buried, and Suhey carried 23 times over those three postseason games, moving the chains for seven first downs. He also rushed for 102 yards at Soldier Field on November 10, 1985, in a 24-3 win over the Detroit Lions.
Payton’s Lead Blocker for Eight Years
Chicago spent a second-round pick on Suhey in the 1980 NFL Draft, taking him out of Penn State, where he ran for 2,818 yards and 26 touchdowns in four years. Tributes on September 7 dwelled on those roots: he followed his father, Steve Suhey, to the Nittany Lions after starring at State College High, and the Suhey family is often labeled Penn State’s “first family.” He never wore another uniform, playing 10 seasons for the Bears before retiring after the 1989 campaign.
Durability was part of the job, and he rarely missed a Sunday, playing 148 of a possible 152 regular-season games and starting 100. Suhey wound up with 828 carries for 2,946 rushing yards and 20 rushing touchdowns. His hands accounted for 260 receptions for 2,113 yards and five scores, and the two columns together left him with 5,059 yards from scrimmage and 25 total touchdowns. Four times in his 10 seasons he topped 100 carries.
The figures that mattered most to him were another man’s. The Hall of Famer piled up 9,800 yards and 51 touchdowns across the eight years he ran behind Suhey, whose blocking helped push Payton to the top of the NFL’s career rushing list — a place he held until Emmitt Smith passed his total on October 27, 2002. Suhey did the same work for running back Neal Anderson once Payton retired. Anderson, running behind him, gained more than 1,100 yards in 1988, and five straight trips to the playoffs followed for the Bears, from 1984 through 1988.
A Bond That Outlasted the Game
What the two men had went well past the backfield. Payton was godfather to one of Suhey’s sons. The NFL series “A Football Life” described Suhey as Payton’s best friend in its Payton episode, and in that same episode Walter Payton’s son, Jarrett Payton, said the fullback took the hits and kept himself out of the spotlight so that the glory would go to his father.
Suhey stayed at his friend’s side in 1999 as Payton was dying of liver cancer, comforting him and keeping the crush of reporters away. One lasting image of the pair came from a spring 1985 minicamp practice in Lake Forest, where a camera caught Payton pulling Suhey’s shorts down from behind as the fullback lined up for a play.
From the Backfield to the Trading Floor
During his offseasons Suhey traded at the Chicago Board of Trade, and he later made that his full-time career. The franchise stayed part of his life long after he stopped playing. He served as Jim Covert’s presenter when the Bears offensive lineman entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame with the Centennial Class, and on September 3, 2019, he was at Soldier Field when statues of Hall of Famers Payton and George Halas were unveiled outside Gate 0.
The 1985 team, which ranks among the most celebrated in NFL history, has taken another blow with his death. Steve McMichael, a Hall of Fame defensive tackle on that squad, died in 2025 after living several years with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Jarrett Payton paid tribute on Monday, September 7, to the man who watched over his family for decades. “After we lost my dad in 1999, Matt became the biggest father figure I had,” he wrote in a social media post. His father, he added, had left Suhey in charge, and Suhey went on to protect the family and check in on them year after year, never once making it about himself. “Brian’s Song told the story of Piccolo and Sayers. Somebody needs to tell the story of 34 and 26,” he wrote, adding: “The Payton family will continue to lift Donna, Joey, Allison, and Scotty up in prayer during this difficult time.”
