{"id":340597,"date":"2026-09-08T11:32:53","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T11:32:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/340597\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T11:32:53","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T11:32:53","slug":"bears-super-bowl-champ-matt-suhey-dead-at-68","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/340597\/","title":{"rendered":"Bears Super Bowl champ Matt Suhey dead at 68"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bears legend Matt Suhey died in his sleep Saturday night over Labor Day weekend, according to multiple reports.<\/p>\n

He was 68. <\/p>\n

The cause of death for the longtime Chicago fullback and running back, who spent his full 10-year NFL career in the city, is not known. <\/p>\n

Several former teammates of Suhey\u2019s were left stunned.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am shocked,\u201d Hall of Fame defensive tackle Dan Hampton said to the Daily Herald<\/a> after receiving the news Sunday evening. <\/p>\n

Hampton said he saw Suhey at the Super Bowl XX Bears\u2019 40th anniversary last year.<\/p>\n

\"ChicagoMatt Suhey of the Chicago Bears runs onto the field prior to the start of an NFL football game circa 1988 at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois. Suhey played for the Bears from 1980-89. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI kind of remember Matt as a level-headed guy,\u201d safety Gary Fencik said. \u201cYou 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suhey was a second-round pick to Chicago in 1980 out of Penn State. <\/p>\n

Over a decade, he rushed for 2,946 yards for 20 touchdowns across 148 games, including 100 starts. Suhey also caught 260 passes for 2,113 yards and five touchdowns as a valuable piece in the Bears\u2019 backfield.<\/p>\n

He also rushed for 52 yards and scored the first touchdown in a 46-10 pummeling of the Patriots in Super Bowl victory in 1986.<\/p>\n

In seven of his 10 seasons, Suhey didn\u2019t miss a regular-season game.<\/p>\n

\"ChicagoMatt Suhey (No. 26) of the Chicago Bears carries the ball against the New England Patriots during Super Bowl XX on Jan. 26, 1986, at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans. The Bears won the Super Bowl 46-10. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cQuality of character, there was no one superior to Matt,\u201d Hampton said. \u201cHe was truly a gentleman. He wasn\u2019t like a bunch of the rest of us who were cutting up. He was, I don\u2019t want to say more adult, but he was real responsible. He played around with Walter and everyone else but he wasn\u2019t a guy going out to the bar after the game. He was a businessman.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suhey was the lead blocker and best friend of Hall of Famer Walter Payton, who died in 1999 which came 12 years after he retired as the NFL\u2019s all-time leading rusher. He was also the godfather of Suhey\u2019s son, Scott.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow can anybody compare to him?\u201d Suhey said of Payton in a 1985 Tribune article. \u201dSome may be faster, but nobody\u2019s stronger or better at all facets of the game. It might be nice to carry the ball more and see my name in the stats. But if Walter scores a touchdown, and I make a good block, that\u2019s the name of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a very good friend of mine. I enjoy his personality. You never know what to expect. On the field, you\u2019re always second to him. But he never makes you feel that way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bears legend Matt Suhey died in his sleep Saturday night over Labor Day weekend, according to multiple reports.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340598,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2086,9,11,10,22,12434,322,319],"class_list":["post-340597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-chicago-bears","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-nfl","tag-obits","tag-obituaries","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}