Matt Suhey, who spent a decade as a running back for the Chicago Bears, died Saturday night. By Sunday evening, Hall of Fame defensive tackle Dan Hampton had received the news and begun sharing it with their former teammates.

Suhey was 68, and as per reports, he died in his sleep.

“I am shocked,” Hampton said upon hearing the news. The loss felt especially surreal because it had been only a year since the two former teammates reunited at the Super Bowl XX team’s 40th anniversary gathering.

Similarly, safety Gary Fencik was also left stunned by the news. Just a week earlier, he had reached out to the Suhey family to make plans for dinner, and the sudden loss was all the more difficult to process.

While the Chicago football community mourns the loss, further details regarding Suhey’s death are currently not available.

Matt Suhey played through the pain in the NFL

August 1986 was supposed to bring Matt Suhey the thrill of a fresh start. As the defending NFL champions, he was eager to take the field alongside his Bears teammates for the first time that season.

But before he could soak in that championship feeling, another sensation took over: a severe pain in his lower back that had already begun troubling him earlier that summer. It was a herniated disc in his back.

Surgery was ultimately ruled out, but doctors gave Suhey a difficult prescription: stay away from physical hits for six months. The restriction cost him minicamp and the first week of training camp in July, but he followed the orders and worked his way back. His return finally came in an exhibition opener in London, only for another cruel twist to intervene. Suhey cracked a tooth and was forced to miss the game.

But no injury ever was able to really keep him away from the field for too long.

In fact, during seven of his ten seasons with the Bears, Suhey never missed a single regular season game. Sure, his love for football made sure he was always on the field. But that wasn’t the only reason.

A deeper reason was his friendship with running back Walter Payton.

Suhey and Payton were nothing less than brothers

Matt Suhey’s job was often the dirty work that made Walter Payton shine. He opened holes and cleared the path for one of the greatest running backs in NFL history. Their bond was captured perfectly in one of the iconic Chicago Bears photos from 1985, taken during a minicamp practice that spring.

Payton, lined up behind Suhey in the I-formation, had one finger on his left hand hooked around the fullback’s shorts, creating a snapshot that said as much about their comfort with each other as it did about football.

But their connection was never limited to what happened between the lines. Suhey and Payton shared a deep friendship that extended far beyond the game.

And when Payton’s life took a devastating turn with liver cancer, Suhey didn’t step away. He stayed by his friend’s side, helping him find strength through the battle while also shielding him from the relentless media attention during those difficult days.

“It’s Walter’s life, and it should be Walter’s death,” Suhey had said back then, while talking to the media.

Payton died in 1999.

Suhey devoted his 10-year-long NFL career to Chicago. In that decade, he recorded 2,946 rushing yards and 20 touchdowns in 148 games. He also made an impact as a receiver, finishing with 2,113 receiving yards.

There is a unique way of measuring Suhey’s contribution to the Bears. For that, we need to consider Walter Payton’s numbers between 1980 and 1987. Payton rushed for more than 1,000 yards in six of those seasons, topping 1,400 yards four times. The 1982 campaign lasted only nine games due to the players’ strike, so with a full 16-game schedule, Suhey may have helped Payton add another 1,000-yard season to his resume.

The duo helped Chicago lead the league in rushing for four consecutive seasons from 1983-86. Later, the gridiron chemistry translated into a strong bond in real life. In Payton’s autobiography, ‘Never Die Easy,’ he talked about his bond with Suhey. 

“We were Ebony and Ivory before Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney,” Payton wrote.

Now, the two friends will reunite once again.