ESPN’s Troy Aikman.

As Joe has written, it’s fascinating how Tom Brady taking an 11-day vacation and skipping the middle of training camp really has the football world turned upside down.

All the hardarses and old-school football types are pulling out what little hair they have left with a franchise quarterback hitting the Bahamas for 11 days. In August. That goes totally against every known football doctrine that training camp is supposed to be a test of wills against the elements, against your teammates and to build endurance and bonding.

Brady blew all that nonsense up for the world to see. He was sharp when he returned — just as he was before he left. Decades-old football beliefs were shattered.

Now three-time Super Bowl-winner and Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman is, himself, an old-school football guy and a red-arse. He hated playing for Barry Switzer because he thought Switzer wasn’t tough enough and disciplined enough with his Cowboys.

Aikman longed for the day he had Jimmy Johnson as coach. Johnson was such a hardarse that he threw a player off his team for having an asthma attack. Joe can only imagine what Johnson’s reaction would have been if Aikman asked him if he could blow off training camp for 11 days to hit the Bahamas.

But with Brady taking a tropical siesta in the middle of August? Aikman shrugged his shoulders.

Appearing on the “Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast,” co-hosted by Andrew Marchand of the New York Post and John Ourand of Sports Business Journal, Aikman was asked by Marchand what he thought of a quarterback like Brady walking away.

Aikman’s response was to the point.

“Nothing. You know, nothing.”

But Aikman, now working for ESPN, elaborated that it meant nothing in the big picture for both Brady and the Bucs because it was Tom freaking Brady.

“It doesn’t really matter,” Aikman said. “There is not a more team-oriented guy than Tom Brady. I mean there is just not. There is a reason why he has won the way that he has. He gets it. He knows what it takes to not only play at a high level, but also to create a culture within an organization on what it takes exactly to win.

“So, never would I question anything Tom Brady does as to how that may or may not detract from the goal of a football team. “

Aikman noted that Brady wants to win badly. And Brady knows what he and the Bucs need to do to be ready to play real games. And, if Brady felt he would be hurting his teammates, he never would have left camp.

Then, Aikman said modern training camps are a joke anyway.

“Let’s be honest,” Aikman said. “What do they do? We call it ‘training camp’ but they better come up with a different name for it because it is not training camp that I am familiar with.

“And I’m sure [the time off] was probably beneficial for [Brady] to get away.”

Aikman in previous podcasts has mentioned since he began calling Brady games with the Bucs, he began to get close to Brady. Aikman said he was shocked when Brady announced his retirement earlier this year because he said he didn’t think Brady was “committed” to hanging it up. So when Brady returned 40 days later, Aikman unfazed.

Aikman will call the Bucs hosingt the slimy Saints on Monday Night Football Dec. 5.