A hard-nosed Chicago Bears fullback who spent eight seasons clearing a path for Hall of Fame running back Walter Payton, Matt Suhey also scored the first touchdown of Super Bowl XX. He died on Sunday, September 6, 2026, at 68.
The Bears confirmed Suhey’s death and released no other details. He was found dead at his home in Deerfield, Ill., on Sunday, September 6, and his cause of death was determined to be natural causes. A Lake County Coroner’s Office spokesperson said on Tuesday, September 8, that an initial police probe “revealed that there were no suspicious circumstances” surrounding his death.
Steve Newton, chief deputy of the Lake County Coroner’s Office, said: “Our preliminary investigation indicated that Mr. Suhey had a significant medical history and was being treated by a primary care physician (PCP).”
The men who played beside him were blindsided, partly because Suhey had looked healthy in recent weeks. Former Bears safety Gary Fencik had been scheduling a breakfast with him. “It was out of the blue,” Fencik said.
In comments published September 8, 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
In the first quarter of Super Bowl XX, played in New Orleans on January 26, 1986, Suhey broke free for an 11-yard scoring run — the opening touchdown in a 46-10 demolition of the New England Patriots. He ran 11 times for 52 yards that afternoon and hauled in a 24-yard reception. That title remains the only Lombardi Trophy in franchise history.
Blocking was not all he did that season. Suhey’s 471 rushing yards ranked second on a Chicago team that went 15-1, with 1,551 yards and nine touchdowns from Payton the only total ahead of his. The Bears shut out the New York Giants and the Los Angeles Rams in the playoffs, then buried New England. Suhey carried 23 times across those three postseason games and moved the chains for seven first downs, and a 102-yard rushing afternoon had come earlier, on November 10, 1985, in a 24-3 win over the Detroit Lions at Soldier Field.
Eight Years as Payton’s Lead Blocker
Chicago took Suhey in the second round of the 1980 NFL Draft out of Penn State, where he had run for 2,818 yards and 26 touchdowns in four years. He wore no other uniform, playing 10 seasons in Chicago, and he retired after the 1989 campaign.
Durability was among his hallmarks, and he rarely missed a Sunday. He appeared in 148 regular-season games out of a possible 152 and started 100. His career line: 828 carries for 2,946 rushing yards and 20 rushing touchdowns, with 260 catches adding 2,113 yards and five scores, which left him at 5,059 yards from scrimmage and 25 total touchdowns. In four of his 10 seasons, he topped 100 carries.
The statistics he cared about most belonged to another man. Payton ran behind Suhey for eight years, piling up 9,800 yards and 51 touchdowns, and that blocking helped carry Payton to the top of the NFL’s career rushing list, a spot he held until Emmitt Smith passed his total on October 27, 2002. Suhey took on the same job for running back Neal Anderson after Payton retired, and Anderson gained more than 1,100 yards behind him in 1988. Chicago reached the playoffs five years running, from 1984 through 1988.
A Friendship That Outlasted the Game
Their relationship ran well past the backfield. One of Suhey’s sons had Payton for a godfather. In Payton’s episode of the NFL series “A Football Life,” the two were described as best friends, and Walter Payton’s son, Jarrett Payton, told that episode his father got the glory because Suhey took the hits and kept himself out of the spotlight. In remarks published September 8, Connie Payton described the pair’s chemistry: “It was sort of like husband and wife where you just know what the other one’s thinking.”
Suhey stayed close as Payton was dying of liver cancer in 1999, comforting his friend and holding the crush of reporters at a distance. A photograph from a spring 1985 minicamp practice in Lake Forest became one of the enduring images of the two, showing Payton pulling down Suhey’s shorts from behind while the fullback lined up for a play.
From the Backfield to the Trading Floor
Suhey traded at the Chicago Board of Trade during his offseasons and later made that work his full-time career. He also stayed woven into the franchise’s life long after he stopped playing. Bears offensive lineman Jim Covert had him as his presenter at his Pro Football Hall of Fame induction with the Centennial Class, and on September 3, 2019, Soldier Field drew him back for the ceremony that unveiled statues of Hall of Famers Payton and George Halas outside Gate 0.
The 1985 team remains one of the most celebrated in NFL history, and his death is another blow to it. Hall of Fame defensive tackle Steve McMichael, a teammate on that squad, died in 2025 following several years with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Jarrett Payton, on Monday, September 7, paid tribute 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 added, had left Suhey in charge, and the family was protected and checked in on year after year by Suhey, who never made any of it about himself.