Suzy Kolber didn't get to play football. Instead, she became a legendary ESPN broadcaster.

Suzy Kolber, around 10 years old, and wearing her football gear, was asked a question by a television reporter: What makes you want to be a football player?

"Well," she said, "I liked the sport and always wanted to do it."

Aren't you afraid of getting hurt, she was asked? Kolber laughed, as if the question was a stupid one, because it was, and then she gave a succinct answer:

"No."

As Kolber told NFL Films, she was one of the first girls in the country to try and play organized football. Her dream never fully materialized because parents of other kids who opposed her playing. A lawsuit was filed and Kolber says rather than fight it, she walked away, because she didn't want to be a distraction to her teammates.

Kolber didn't play, so like so many of us who love football but couldn't do it on the field, she started covering the sport as a journalist. What would happen next is that little girl who had the toughness to play, used that toughness in a different way, which was becoming one of the most recognized and knowledgeable football journalists alive.

This isn't an attempt to present her as Martin Luther Kolber; she's a sports journalist, not a world leader. But that doesn't take away from a simple fact. Kolber prospered in a broadcast and fan world that often despises women, particularly women in high profile places, like anchoring an NFL television show. It's particularly brutal on women of color.

ESPN announced a slew of layoffs and some of them were huge names, like former 49ers quarterback Steve Young and Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy, but it's Kolber, who was also let go, that's among the most impactful because of what she stood for: resilience, knowledge, and being highly skilled at her job while spending so much of her career working in a man's sports world.

“Today I join the many hard-working colleagues who have been laid off,” she tweeted Friday. “Heartbreaking - but 27 years at ESPN was a good run.” Kolber said she was “especially proud” of being a woman largely covering men’s sports.

“Suzy Kolber is a pioneer and a legend,” ESPN analyst Adam Schefter tweeted. “She, like others laid off today, always will be remembered and missed.”

If you covered the NFL, Kolber was always a must-watch. She was also omnipresent. I saw her at games for years, either as a reporter or a host. Players and coaches would sometimes note to me she was one of the journalists they trusted the most. She worked harder than print journalists I've known that have covered football.

Read more about ESPN Network's layoffs include Jeff Van Gundy, Suzy Kolber

Again, this isn't to portray Kolber as a superhero; and she's just one of many talented women who have fought sexism and bigotry throughout their careers. Pam Oliver is one of the most consequential, fearless and important television sports journalists in modern history. Lisa Salters is also vital. Kolber is in that universe.

Hardcore football people will remember Kolber from the "Edge NFL Matchup" show on ESPN where she hosted alongside former Eagles quarterback Ron Jaworski and former Steelers runner Merril Hoge. If you loved football, you didn't miss those shows, and the depth of her knowledge of the sport was clear.

She also handled Joe Namath's notorious and embarrassing behavior towards her during a sideline interview with great professionalism.

There are a number of good people at ESPN that lost their jobs and Kolber is one of them. She'll be remembered as one of the better pros the network has ever produced. If you watched football, you saw Kolber, and appreciated her.

And she probably would have been a hell of a football player.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Suzy Kolber, laid off by ESPN, was a hardcore football journalist