This past Wednesday, Andre Rozemberg Prixoto Simores, a professor at Mato Grosso do Sul State University, spoke to us students about his native country of Brazil. Simores touched on his nation’s culture, agricultural practices, geographical regions, and socioeconomic situation. In this amalgam of topics, I found Brazil’s obsession with soccer, or, football as it is called there, to be the most interesting. Simores explained to us that football is a HUGE deal in Brazil. I actually knew this beforehand, as I have read that soccer game days are considered national holidays there, whilst sometimes the deceased get a soccer team flag draped over their coffins.

I can’t speak to why Brazil cares so much more about football than America does. But I can understand why football is so important to Brazil as a country. Simores mentioned that that the gap between rich and poor in Brazil is of great magnitude. In addition to socioeconomic disparities, Brazil contains geographically dissimilar regions. It comprises rainforests, wetlands, savannahs, and plains, and intersperses booming cities with sparse rural areas. Therefore, overall, Brazil contains a variety of diverse peoples having different geographic and socioeconomic experiences. Football is the shared experience that strings together this population of disparate folks. It is how national unity is achieved.

Therefore, football is more than just a sport in Brazil. It is the common language, breaking through geographical and social class boundaries. What fills this role in America? Sports? Politics? This is an important question to ponder if we want to improve cohesiveness and unity across the US.