Matt Suhey, Bears fullback who helped win Super Bowl XX, dies at 68

Matt Suhey, a fullback for the Chicago Bears for a decade whose blocking helped clear the way for Hall of Famer Walter Payton and was a big part of the team’s Super Bowl XX championship squad, died on Sunday. He was 68.

The Bears confirmed that Suhey died on Sunday morning but did not provide any other details.

Suhey was discovered unresponsive at his home in the northern Chicago suburb of Deerfield, the Lake & McHenry County Scanner reported.

According to the Lake County Coroner’s Office, Suhey was pronounced dead at the scene around 2:21 p.m. CT by the Deerfield-Bannockburn Fire Protection District. The coroner’s office was notified 20 minutes later by the Deerfield Police Department, according to the news outlet.

Suhey scored the first touchdown in Super Bowl XX on an 11-yard run as the Bears rolled to a 46-10 victory, capturing the only Lombardi Trophy in franchise history, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

He played 10 years for the Bears, rushing for 2,946 yards and 20 touchdowns during the regular season. In the postseason, Suhey gained 156 yards and scored a touchdown during the Super Bowl.

Suhey’s death caught his friends and former teammates by surprise.

“It was out of the blue,” former Bears safety Gary Fencik told the Sun-Times. “I was scheduling a breakfast with Matt for this week, so I was shocked.

“It’s shocking, but it’s just reality. Some of my teammates are passing away. We’re no longer invincible. I think of (Pro Football Hall of Famer) Steve McMichael and now Matt.”

McMichael battled ALS for several years before dying in 2025, according to the newspaper.

“We butted heads every day at practice, but he was such a class guy,” Hall of Fame linebacker Mike Singletary told the Sun-Times. “He was everything that you talk about in America about being a person that was doing his job every day, lunch-pail type of guy and really had the emotional intelligence to know how to deal with every kind of person -- (he) never met a bad person.”

The Bears selected Suhey out of Penn State in the second round of the 1980 NFL draft, where he rushed for 2,946 yards and scored 20 touchdowns. In Chicago, he served as the lead blocker for Payton for eight seasons.

Suhey helped Payton become the NFL’s career leading rusher, a record he held until Emmitt Smith surpassed his total on Oct. 27, 2002, The Associated Press reported.

The two running backs also became close friends, with Payton serving as godfather to Suhey’s youngest son, according to the news organization. Suhey remained close to Payton’s family after the star halfback died in November 1999, the Sun-Times reported.

“After we lost my dad in 1999, Matt became the biggest father figure I had,” Payton’s son, Jarrett Payton, posted on social media on Monday. “When everything felt uncertain, he was there. My dad left him in charge and Matt never let that responsibility sit lightly. He protected our family. He looked after us. He made sure we were OK, year after year, without ever making it about himself.

“That is who he was.”

“When I go to Chicago, Matt Suhey comes to my mind because I want to see his smile and hear him teasing me about something,” Singletary told the Sun-Times. “I’m really, really going to miss that light.”

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