Schofield is quite a unique character.
He has a high opinion of himself but he's quite in touch with ordinary fans. He regards himself as the greatest player who played the game but he never sought to be part of a clique of ex players or media who saw themselves as above ordinary folk. I used to live in Leeds and you'd see him in the pubs watching the games on Sky and he'd chat to anybody about rugby league. He was funny and friendly with people and you rarely see that from sports stars, they always try to keep themselves a bit apart from the riff raff. Everybody in Leeds knew who he was and so he was always getting attention but he seemed happy to exist among the ordinary fans as one of them.
His views tended to be populist and predictable: too many overseas players, clubs don't give young lads with talent the chance to develop, the game these days is crap compared to what it used to be. But over time I think a lot of people started to agree with him especially on the last one. He never fell for any emporers-new-clothes style hype.
And for those of us old enough to remember him as a player he was absolutely world class. There were some incredible British players back then with him, Hanley, Offiah, Davies, Edwards.
It is very sad to hear of his health problems and I wish him all the best.
