Who would be offended by this? It seems to me the only thing that could be offensive is the implication that modern men aren't as tough as in the past. Is that what you mean?
I'll admit to being sensitive to the topic. I'm mostly surprised that given all of the attention that the barriers to women in the industry has been given over the last number of months, people still use language like this. My point is that we _should_ be sensitive to this issue. We should think about the women engineers that are on the margins, perhaps experiencing harassment at work or online, and consider how they would feel reading yet another 'manly man' reference to being a great developer.
Doesn't seem to me like it says anything about women. I'm forced to conclude that this is a hot button topic for you, and isn't something relevant to the article or discussion at hand.