Female athletes should put up or shut up

As a sports writer who has gone out of his way to promote the growth of girls in sports over the past 20 years, I was bothered by John McEnroe's comments last week. The tennis legend suggested female players on the WTA shouldn't be asked to compete in as many tournaments as the men. He suggested women aren't as tough or as physically capable of playing so much.
"You shouldn't push them to play more than they're capable of," said McEnroe, who suggested the number of women's tournaments be cut.
If he were being honest, McEnroe would love to say all women's tennis should be banned. McEnroe has displayed a disdain for women's tennis for a long time. When he does commentary for a women's match, you can hear the disgust in his voice and see the disrespect in his face.
So, while his comments bothered me, I wasn't surprised.
Of course, women's groups were outraged at the suggestion that female athletes aren't capable of competing at the same level as their male counterparts.
I agree with those women. But, instead of telling McEnroe and all those like him that they're wrong, I think it's time women put up or shut up.
In men's tennis, the players go best 3-of-5 sets while the women play best-of-3. Why?
Aren't women just as capable as the men?
Why do women golfers hit off different tees? Why does women's basketball use a smaller ball?
I know. Women are built differently than men. Women are usually smaller than men with smaller hands and yadda, yadda, yadda.
If you want men to stop ridiculing female athletes, you have to erase all the rules that give allowances for women.
All sports should be like track and field. The men's 100 meters is the same distance as the women's 100 meters. The men's marathon is the same distance as the women's marathon. Women jump over the same high jump bar and into the same long jump pit as the men.
Same rules. Same sport. Same respect.
Okay, yeah, I'll give you women clearing low hurdles while men run the high hurdles. Women are shorter with shorter legs.
But, why do women need to hit from a different tee in golf? There should be one tee box. Everybody hits from it. If it takes a woman a few more strokes to get the ball in the hole, so what?
Women were playing with a normal-sized basketball for years. Finally someone, probably a man, decided the female hands were too small to hold a big, basketball so they made it smaller. Now, anytime a woman hits a 3-pointer or shoots a high percentage at the free throw line, some neanderthal jerk will suggest, "Hey, I could too if I got to play with a girls' ball."
And, if women can run marathons, why can't they play five sets of tennis? Women are even allowed to have coaching on the court while the men aren't.
What are they, weak?
I don't think they are so it's time we stop treating female athletes as if they're weaklings, incapable of competing at a high level. Stop making allowances for the fact they're women. And, stop giving jerks like McEnroe ammunition to suggest women can't be athletes.