Wyles threw out a pitch at a Phillies baseball game; both teams went to watch Temple University’s Owls play American football; Maro Itoje visited Independence Hall and the African American Museum. Now an American masterpiece, in 1876 it was rejected for the city’s centennial exhibition, “perhaps because the subject was too bloody and brutal”. But to most in Philly a game of professional rugby is an unfamiliar thing, even ahead of its time. Most wore team colours: black and white for the Falcons, black and red for Saracens, selections from the kaleidoscope of American high schools, colleges and clubs. “American football does it to us in our country, so why not do it in theirs?”

Source: The Guardian September 16, 2017 23:48 UTC