LAST Popular Culture as Mass Culture

I found Bellos's paper on futebol to be very intersting. The represenation and meaning behind futebol in Latin America became very aparent to me and its outstanding powers on the public, the players, countries as a whole and invevitably the world in one way or another. Its clear that futebol is much much more then just the simple game of futebol in Latin America. For me this was hard to comprehend because personally a game to me is just a game and thats as far as i take it. Futebol as shown in this article however means everything to alot of people. It made me curiuos to why this is so... how such importance and prestige could be layed on such a simple game. It also made me question why this tendency for futebol to be 'everything' and be such a big part of everyday life was more consistent in Latin America rather than North America. It appears as though larger  political meanings are attached to futebol in Latin America or atleast are more evident than in North American leagues. An interesting aspect realating to this is the Olympics where the power of sports is truly showcased. However, this force that connects people through sports can also tear others apart and create grudges/hatred not only between individual players or athletes but on larger scales of countries or regions. At the end of the day it is clear that sports are an extremely strong force with unbelivaibly strong powers globally.