On a Saturday nite in early September 2026, Matt Suhey, a member of the 1985 Chicago Bears championship team, passed away peacefully in his sleep at the age of 68. No dramatic diagnosis. No protracted public conflict. He just didn’t awaken. There is something appropriate and somewhat unfair about that for a man who endured punishment on NFL fields for ten years without complaining.
Suhey played for the Bears from 1980 to 1989 after being drafted out of Penn State. He made 140 appearances during his career and is most remembered for being the primary blocker for Hall of Fame running back Walter Payton, with whom he grew close. The friendship, which is the final aspect, is actually the central theme of his whole life. Everything else, including the yards, blocks, and Super Bowl rings, seems like a preface to the events that followed.
Suhey joined the Bears as a second-round draft pick in 1980 and played for them until 1989. Over the course of his ten-year career, he amassed 2,946 rushing yards, 20 rushing touchdowns, 2,113 receiving yards, and five receiving touchdowns. Most running backs would be proud of those numbers. However, Suhey’s role as a fullback was to enhance the appearance of other men. He was very good at it. Almost imperceptibly so.
“It was sort of like husband and wife where you just know what the other one’s thinking,” Connie, Payton’s wife, said of their relationship. It greatly facilitated their on-field chemistry. It wasn’t a playbook that produced that trust. It was created through the tedious, unglamorous repetition of film sessions, practice sessions, and road trips where two very different men from very different backgrounds discovered they were alike.
When someone searches for “Matt Suhey illness,” many are actually searching for the Walter Payton story. Suhey accompanied Payton on about forty drives, nine doctor’s appointments, and trips to Dairy Queen after he was diagnosed with a rare liver disease. Payton also named Suhey godfather to his son, Jarrett. Forty drives. Nine appointments. Dairy Queen. The picture of two men who used to run through NFL defenses together and are now just riding somewhere quiet and needing to say nothing at all is so striking.
Suhey is lined up for a play in a well-known picture of Payton and Suhey taken during a practice in the spring of 1985. Payton is seen pulling down his shorts from behind while grinning broadly. More can be learned about these two men from that picture than from any statistic. It depicts two people who were genuinely at ease and didn’t have to perform for one another.
In many respects, Suhey was the team’s heart, while Payton was its soul. He consistently delivered while fighting through excruciating pain without complaining. That’s a description that goes far beyond the football field. Suhey did not fade away following Payton’s death in 1999. He remained. He mentored Jarrett, took on the role of executor of Payton’s estate, and continued to show up for a family that wasn’t really his own.
Some people only fully make sense after they are gone. Among them was Matt Suhey. People were curious about his illness because they sensed—correctly—that there was more to him than the highlight reels could convey, not because anything was concealed. After leaving football, the former player had a quiet personal life for many years. There were no scandals or candid interviews, just a regular person going about their daily life. That seems like a noteworthy accomplishment in and of itself in 2026.
He was sixty-eight. Whether the football took years away from him like it does so many others is still up for debate. He made good use of the years he had.