Peyton Manning wishes he could have played for Pat Summitt

Back in 2012, when Peyton Manning’s career was hanging in the balance following four neck surgeries and his release from the Indianapolis Colts, he placed a call to an old friend from his college days.

We don’t know if it was for advice or reassurance, or just two friends chatting. But it also was a flashpoint in Pat Summit’s life, too. She had just finished her final season in a legendary career as Tennessee woman’s basketball coach after being diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease in 2011.

Summitt, 64, died early Tuesday.

Her impact on women’s basketball — and sports in general — can’t be overstated. So much so that Manning, who befriended Summitt when he was an underclassman at Tennessee in the 1990s, believes she could have succeeded as a coach in any sport.

Yes, even football.

“I called and I told her I always wished that I could have played for her,” Manning said in the video from 2012. “Obviously, it’s a different sport. But people always said Pat Summit could have coached a men’s basketball team. I think she could have coached a football team, I really do. She’s just a coach.”

Summitt will go down as one of the all-time great basketball coaches ever, just as Manning stepped away from the NFL this offseason as one of the finest quarterbacks ever to play the game. They both also handled themselves gracefully in the public eye despite having the fire needed to be elite competitors in their respective sports.

Summitt might never have coached football or a men’s sport, but the era of women flourishing in the NFL appears to be upon us. We have prominent female executives, a female referee and female coaches in the league now, and commissioner Roger Goodell announced that the NFL would be implementing a “Rooney Rule” type of requirement to interview women for executive positions before making any hires.

A small part of that credit for the lengths women have come in male-dominated sports — especially the NFL — likely belongs to Summitt. We think Manning would agree.

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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Eric_Edholm