Seahawks vs. Rams: Welcome to the 'manly football league'

This isn't just the National Football League. Oh no, it's much, much more than that. It's the Manly Football League.

That's what St. Louis Rams assistant head coach Dave McGinnis calls the league these days, the NFC West in particular.

"It's the MFL," McGinnis said. "I mean, it's the ‘Manly Football League.' That's what it is and that's the way it's going to be and of course."

Jeff Fisher's old partner from the Chicago days wasn't just talking about some locker room towel fight. He was actually talking about just how tough the NFC West has gotten to be these days. It's a noticeable change for a division that used to be an easy joke for lazy writers.

"This division is pretty interesting as far as the way that it's evolving," he said. "It's starting to remind me a whole lot of that first division I was in, in Chicago where you buckle up, you take two chin straps and two mouth pieces to the ball game, and then you go."

St. Louis hosts the division's top defense this week with the Seattle Seahawks in town. McGinnis says they're ready.

"Well, there's very good coaches in this division," Fisher's long-time assistant said. "There's very good coaches in the National Football League, but you can see kind of the physical mentality of where this division is going. That's what it is and that's good because that's the way we've always coached football in this league, and I'm talking about Jeff Fisher and his football teams. Physical is where you start."