I had this discussion many times with my dad who is very pro male sports and a former ex of mine who is a professional athlete making good money with what she does and being one of the best female athletes in her discipline internationally.

I think it's really simple. No matter if you are handicapped or not. A woman giving the best she can in any sport is as good as a man giving the best he can in any sports. They deserve the same respect for their accomplishments and the hard work that comes with regularly performing a (team) sport.
Point.

We can argue about if Mr.Benoit found the right words for what he wanted to express, but I think Mr.Benoit has the right to say that for him women sports are less entertaining and based on his profession he should also be allowed to make assumptions based on viewing numbers and every other metric we use to measure how entertaining / successful a sport is.

Many of these sports like NFL or Soccer were designed to test the physical strength and abilities of men. Now I'm sure there are women out there who can tackle as hard as any male athlete and I know first hand that there are women out there who are as technically skilled as Lionel Messi in soccer but that doesn't change the fact that these sports were designed for men originally. A lot of excitement in these sports comes from heavy physical contact and "power plays".

To make an example, I've been a semi-professional boxer and I personally enjoy male boxing a lot more than female boxing simply because men from my personal experience and training with both men and woman can hit a lot harder, and that makes most boxing matches for me a lot more interesting.

I still watch female boxing matches from time to time and I have love and respect for any woman that gets into the ring and works hard for that. But it's not the same sport for me when women do it.

Should I be tared and feathered by feminists for saying that? I don't think so.

And I think the physical aspect of many of these sports are one of the major viewing points for many fans.

So for many people women sports are simply not as enjoyable to watch as male sports and that is perfectly fine. I can have respect for any female athlete out there, but just like with some types of music I should be able to say I enjoy one thing more than another because of my personal preference.

In the end you should always have respect for every human being and what they try to accomplish no matter what color, nationality or gender they have.