Matt Suhey, the hard-nosed Chicago Bears fullback who blocked for Hall of Fame running back Walter Payton over eight seasons and scored the first touchdown of Super Bowl XX, died Sunday, September 6, 2026, at 68.
The Bears confirmed his death and offered no other details. The Lake County Coroner’s Office said Suhey died of natural causes. He was found dead at his home in Deerfield, Ill., on Sunday, September 6, and an initial police probe “revealed that there were no suspicious circumstances,” a coroner’s spokesperson said on Tuesday, September 8. Chief deputy Steve Newton said: “Our preliminary investigation indicated that Mr. Suhey had a significant medical history and was being treated by a primary care physician (PCP).”
Teammates were blindsided, partly because Suhey had looked healthy in recent weeks. Former Bears safety Gary Fencik said he had been in the middle of scheduling a breakfast with him. “It was out of the blue,” Fencik said. In comments published September 8, Fencik told the Daily Herald: “I kind of remember Matt as a level-headed guy.”
New Orleans and the Opening Score
Suhey’s signature moment came in New Orleans on January 26, 1986. He broke loose for an 11-yard scoring run in the first quarter of Super Bowl XX — the first touchdown of a game Chicago turned into a 46-10 demolition of the New England Patriots. He carried 11 times for 52 yards that afternoon and added a 24-yard reception. The franchise has never won another Lombardi Trophy.
Blocking was not his only contribution that year. Suhey ran for 471 yards as the Bears went 15-1, second on the roster behind only Payton, who piled up 1,551 yards and nine touchdowns. Chicago blanked the New York Giants and the Los Angeles Rams in the playoffs before burying New England, and over those three postseason games Suhey carried 23 times and moved the chains for seven first downs. On November 10, 1985, he ran for 102 yards in a 24-3 win over the Detroit Lions at Soldier Field.
Eight Years Ahead of Payton
Chicago took Suhey in the second round of the 1980 NFL Draft out of Penn State, where he had rushed for 2,818 yards and 26 touchdowns in four years. He never wore another uniform, playing 10 seasons for the Bears before retiring after the 1989 campaign.
Durability defined him. Suhey played 148 regular-season games out of a possible 152 and started 100 of them. He finished with 828 carries for 2,946 rushing yards and 20 rushing touchdowns, plus 260 receptions for 2,113 yards and five scores — 5,059 yards from scrimmage and 25 total touchdowns. Four of his 10 seasons brought him more than 100 carries.
The statistics he prized belonged to someone else. Payton ran behind Suhey for eight years and gained 9,800 yards with 51 touchdowns in that stretch, and Suhey’s blocking helped push the Hall of Famer to the top of the NFL’s career rushing list — a spot Payton held until Emmitt Smith passed his total on October 27, 2002. Suhey took on the same job for running back Neal Anderson once Payton retired, and Anderson gained more than 1,100 yards behind him in 1988. The Bears reached the playoffs five straight years, from 1984 through 1988.
A Friendship Beyond the Backfield
What the two men had went well past their work in the backfield. Payton served as godfather to one of Suhey’s sons. Payton’s episode of the NFL series “A Football Life” described Suhey as Payton’s best friend, and Jarrett Payton, Walter Payton’s son, said in that episode that Suhey absorbed the punishment and stayed in the background so his father could collect the glory.
Suhey stayed at Payton’s side as his friend was dying of liver cancer in 1999, comforting him and keeping the crush of reporters away. One image of the pair has endured from a spring 1985 minicamp practice in Lake Forest, where Payton was photographed yanking down Suhey’s shorts from behind as the fullback lined up for a play.
A Second Career on the Trading Floor
Suhey traded at the Chicago Board of Trade during his offseasons and later made it his full-time career. He also stayed woven into the franchise’s life, serving as the presenter for Bears offensive lineman Jim Covert at his Pro Football Hall of Fame induction with the Centennial Class. He was at Soldier Field on September 3, 2019, for the ceremony that unveiled statues of two Hall of Famers, Payton and George Halas, outside Gate 0.
His death is another blow to a 1985 team that remains one of the most celebrated in NFL history. Steve McMichael, the Hall of Fame defensive tackle who lined up on that squad, died in 2025 after several years with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Jarrett Payton paid tribute on Monday, September 7, to the man who had looked after 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 said, had left Suhey in charge, and Suhey protected the family and checked in on them year after year without ever making it about himself.
