Aaron Rodgers’ Understanding Of Batman Seems Rudimentary At Best

After brutally tearing his Achilles in his New York Jets debut on Monday night, future Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers broke his silence on Wednesday evening with an Instagram post.

In his post, Rodgers seemed to confirm his intention of returning to the NFL after rehabbing his injury by quoting Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy.

“The night is darkest before the dawn. And I shall rise yet again,” Rodgers said.

And while that’s all well and good, the real story here is that Rodgers is conflating two different lines from two different Batman movies, with the first part of the quote being from The Dark Knight and the second being, well, more of a theme of The Dark Knight Rises.

This comes off the back of Rodgers saying earlier this summer that The Prestige is his favorite Nolan movie, which is a perfectly acceptable if not edge-lordy take. Plenty of people in the film community boast Nolan’s dueling magician epic as their low-key favorite of his — why can’t Aaron?

But back to Batman and Rodgers’ seemingly rudimentary knowledge of the pathos he’s trying to invoke. The line “The night is darkest before the dawn” was spoken by Harvey Dent, who turned into a literal and metaphorical monster and died at the end of The Dark Knight, which surely isn’t the route that Rodgers wants to go down.

Things don’t fare all that better for Batman in that movie, either, as he’s vilified to such an extent that Bruce Wayne goes into hiding for seven years. Granted, given how dark and isolated Wayne Manor seems to be by the time we pick back up with him in The Dark Knight Rises almost a decade later, maybe that is how Rodgers imagines his future. A darkness retreat in a penthouse! You can certainly see the resemblance.

Looking toward Batman for inspiration certainly isn’t nonsensical, though, given that he, too, is an out-of-touch rich dude with major parental issues who is forced to lace ’em back up when he’s far past his prime because his city needs him.

All of this is to say that Rodgers shouldn’t be looking toward Christian Bale’s iteration of the Caped Crusader, but, instead, Ben Affleck’s, who is far more modeled after the aging The Dark Knight Returns version of Batman that Rodgers will likely need to become if he has any hope of recovering from an ACL tear at the age of 40.

You know, the one who gets himself so jacked up on vengeance and adrenaline that he decides to toss on a mechanical suit and throw punches at Superman. The one who seems like there’s something *seriously* off with him, certainly more than your typical portrayals of Batman. The type of Batman that makes you say to yourself, “Actually, you know what… yeah this dude is NUTS.”

Because what Rodgers is about to attempt — coming back to the NFL as a 40-year-old after an Achilles tear — is undeniably crazy. A torn Achilles is basically what ended Kobe Bryant’s career, who was a few years younger and infinitely more committed to greatness than Rodgers.

But, still, despite the odds against him, Batman not only defeats Superman at the end of The Dark Knight Returns but he basically mollywhops him, as well. That’s the type of Batman Aaron Rodgers needs to be for his Gotham City.

“I want you to remember, Clark, in all the years to come, in your most private moments… I want you to remember my hand at your throat. I want you to remember the one man who beat you!” Bruce famously said.

Just replace the word Clark with Achilles and Rodgers may be onto something with these Batman homages after all.