Matt Suhey, the hard-nosed Chicago Bears fullback who spent eight seasons clearing a path for Hall of Fame running back Walter Payton and scored the first touchdown of Super Bowl XX, died on Sunday, September 6, 2026. He was 68.
The Bears confirmed Suhey’s death and released no other details. No cause of death has been given.
The news blindsided the men who played beside him, in part because Suhey had looked healthy in recent weeks. Former Bears safety Gary Fencik said he had been scheduling a breakfast with Suhey. “It was out of the blue,” Fencik said.
The First Touchdown in New Orleans
Suhey’s signature moment arrived in New Orleans on January 26, 1986. In the first quarter of Super Bowl XX, he broke free for an 11-yard scoring run, the first touchdown of a game the Bears turned into a 46-10 demolition of the New England Patriots. He finished the afternoon with 52 yards on 11 carries and added a 24-yard reception. That title remains the only Lombardi Trophy in franchise history.
He was more than a blocker that season. Suhey finished second on the team in rushing with 471 yards as Chicago went 15-1, trailing only Payton, who ran for 1,551 yards and nine touchdowns. The Bears blanked the New York Giants and the Los Angeles Rams in the playoffs before burying New England, and across those three postseason games Suhey carried 23 times and moved the chains for seven first downs. On November 10, 1985, he rushed for 102 yards in a 24-3 win over the Detroit Lions at Soldier Field.
Payton’s Lead Blocker for Eight Years
The Bears used a second-round pick on Suhey in the 1980 NFL Draft, plucking him from Penn State, where he ran for 2,818 yards and 26 touchdowns in four years. He never played anywhere else, spending 10 seasons with the Bears before retiring after the 1989 campaign.
He was durable and rarely missed a Sunday, appearing in 148 regular-season games out of a possible 152 and starting 100 of them. Suhey 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. He topped 100 carries in four of his 10 seasons.
The numbers that mattered most to him belonged to someone else. In the eight years Payton ran behind Suhey, the Hall of Famer piled up 9,800 yards and 51 touchdowns, and Suhey’s 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. After Payton retired, Suhey did the same work for running back Neal Anderson, who gained more than 1,100 yards behind him in 1988. The Bears reached the playoffs five straight years, from 1984 through 1988.
A Bond That Outlasted the Game
The friendship between the two men reached far beyond the backfield. Payton was godfather to one of Suhey’s sons. In Payton’s episode of the NFL series “A Football Life,” Suhey was described 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.
When Payton was dying of liver cancer in 1999, Suhey was at his side, comforting his friend and keeping the crush of reporters at a distance. One enduring image of the pair came 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.
From the Backfield to the Trading Floor
Suhey spent his offseasons trading at the Chicago Board of Trade and later turned that work into a full-time career. He stayed woven into the franchise’s life long after his playing days, serving as the presenter for Bears offensive lineman Jim Covert at his Pro Football Hall of Fame induction with the Centennial Class. On September 3, 2019, Suhey was at Soldier Field for the ceremony unveiling statues of 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. Hall of Fame defensive tackle Steve McMichael, a teammate on that squad, died in 2025 after several years with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
On Monday, September 7, Jarrett Payton paid tribute to the man who 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. He added that his father had left Suhey in charge, and that Suhey protected the family and checked in on them year after year without ever making it about himself.