In his 12-year, Hall-of-Fame career, Troy Aikman never threw for more than 3,500 yards or had more than 23 passing touchdowns.

Aikman also never invoked Dan Marino or Jim Kelly — his more statistically accomplished but title-less peers — when noting his modest numbers didn’t prevent him from winning three Super Bowls (or if he did, there was no social media around to raise an unholy stink while Kim Bokamper and Cornelius Bennett defended their QB’s honor in 140 characters or less).

Did it ever bother Aikman that he wasn’t the headliner of an offense featuring the NFL’s all-time rushing leader in Emmitt Smith? In this interview prior to last season’s NFC Championship Game, Aikman said he realized early on that his career wouldn’t be defined by stats, but team success based on Dallas’ offense.

He drew a parallel to 49ers quarterback Alex Smith, who ranked 17th in the NFL in touchdowns (17) and 19th in yards (3,144) last year while directing an offense that ranked 31st in passing attempts.

Who cares, Aikman said. The Niners went 13-3.

“I think the lesson in all this, and it’s what I realized during my career, you realize ‘Alright, the numbers aren’t going to necessarily be there because of the style of play is not consistent with what’s going on elsewhere,’” Aikman said. “And so the priority becomes winning. And it was always that.

“Right now, Alex is realizing the fruits of that; if you win, none of those other things really matter. Ultimately you get the credit and the recognition that you deserve when you win. I think at the quarterback position, if you just win, and make that a priority, the rest of it will take care of itself. He’s just now experiencing that.”

Smith is just now experiencing what can happen when he deviates from the deferential, polite and I-just-care-about-wins script he typically follows with the media. Smith, you might have heard, inspired headlines this week by noting the impressive stats of Carolina quarterback Cam Newton were partly a byproduct of playing from behind on a 6-10 team.

Yes, the attention given to Smith’s comment have a much-ado-about-nothing quality.

But Smith sounded at least mildly annoyed when it was mentioned that the 49ers ranked 29th in passing yardage in 2011. And his decision to invoke Newton in response was curiously out of character.

Aikman’s advice: Shrug off the stats, stick to the script and save the anger for anything that interferes with the ultimate goal.

“I learned that real early in my career that that’s what my legacy was going to be,” Aikman said. “And that became all I cared about — whether or not we won. And if there was something that was keeping us from doing that, there was a problem.

“I’ve just heard too many times guys say, I just want to win. I want to go where I can win. But as soon as they get out there and they’re not catching the ball, or they’re not running the ball, then they’re the first guys bitching to the press and complaining. And so those guys I never had much use for.”