Warning: a football cliché is coming in a few seconds. Here it is (as I cringe at what I am about to type):

Are you ready for some footbaaaallll?!?!?!

Now that I have the requisite Hank Williams, Jr., catchphrase out of the way that must be used in at least 35% of all football preview columns, I have to ask: are you really ready for some football? Did the NFL lockout have an effect on you? How do you react now that what is likely your favorite team, the Green Bay Packers, have won it all?

If you like the Packers, you have hope to pull off the rarity of a second-straight Super Bowl win. If you like the Vikings, you have hope to make the playoffs. Hope is a good thing.

There are many new aspects to the coming football season, on the professional, college, and high school levels. Instead of predicting who will place where in their division, who will be their league’s Most Valuable Player, and who will win the championship, the 2011 Athletic Aesthetic Football Preview will look at what is different about this autumn of pigskin action.

Let us start on the pro level, and the fairly new feeling of having our state’s team, the Green Bay packers, as defending Super Bowl champions. Winning the Vince Lombardi Trophy is the most prestigious accomplishment in American professional sports, and the Packers have now done that feat four times (plus nine prior NFL championships). Does this change the desire for winning this season?

Perhaps not: many teams that have won championships find themselves as hungry the following seasons. Perhaps so: many teams that have won championships find that they cannot muster the desire to do everything necessary to win a title now that a championship is fresh in their minds.

Will fans act differently? I imagine interest in the Packers in our area will be higher than its usually already-astronomical level, especially since last year’s Packers team – while thought to be a Super Bowl contender throughout the season – did not play quite like a viable potential champion until the playoffs. Fan expectations surely will be higher, so be prepared to be slightly disappointed if the Packers have merely the second-best record in the NFC at mid-season – it’s just your psychological response to excellence. Plus, would you rather be a Vikings fan?

We Vikings fans have some new things this year: a new roof and turf at the Metrodome! Also new: no Brett Favre as quarterback, though we now have Donovan McNabb, one of the better QBs of the last decade, albeit one who was traded from his last two teams. If we are lucky, we may even have a new stadium approved by the Minnesota legislature this autumn; otherwise, we may have something new for 2012: no NFL team in Minnesota.

Regardless, what is always new about the NFL is who makes the playoffs. Recently, about half of the 12 teams attaining annual playoff births are squads that missed the playoffs the prior year. If there is a sport where hope springs eternal, it is the NFL. If you like the Packers, you have hope to pull off the rarity of a second-straight Super Bowl win. If you like the Vikings, you have hope to make the playoffs. Hope is a good thing.

On the college level, there is a new team in the Big Ten: Nebraska (which makes for 12 teams in the Big Ten, while Nebraska’s departure from the Big 12 leaves that conference with 10 teams – really). Also, new divisions: the Leaders Division (including Wisconsin) and the Legends Division (including Minnesota), leading to the new Big Ten Football Championship Game at the end of the regular season. Many think the Badgers have a good chance to win the Leaders and get to the title game. Meanwhile, Minnesota has a new coach (Jerry Kill), so perhaps they can start selling out their relatively new stadium.

Locally, Menomonie High School will know their new nickname in by mid-September. Meanwhile, a new schedule has high school teams already practicing across the area earlier than normal.

Yes, there is plenty that is new for football for 2011 (new to local cable this season: the NFL Network!). What stays the same is the love of football in our state. Yep, I do believe we’re ready for some football. Take it away, Hank.