Arizona Cardinals LB Schofield ready to meet expectations

The Arizona Cardinals have high expectations for O’Brien
Schofield.

Entering his third year out of Wisconsin, the linebacker
knows
the team needs him to become a consistently effective
player.

The 25-year-old wants the exact same thing for himself.

“I really had to focus on what was important to me,” he
told
Arizona Sports 620’s Doug and Wolf. “This is a business,
you’re
not guaranteed to be here and this is something that I
love to
do, this is something that I want to do.

“And in order to do that there are sacrifices I had to
make.”

Schofield said he put his musical aspirations to the side
so he
could devote all his attention to becoming a dominant
football
player. The linebacker was a fourth-round pick in 2010,
but
slid that far only because of a torn ACL suffered during
the
week of the Senior Bowl.

But now, fully healthy and entering training camp as a
projected starter, Schofield plans on improving on the 4.5
sacks he tallied last season.

“I have some very high goals for myself,” he said. “I know
there are high expectations for myself from the outside
world,
but the position that I’m in to actually be a starter in
the
NFL coming into camp, I don’t take that lightly.”

That’s not to say Schofield is taking his starting job for
granted, as he’s practicing as if a job is on the line.

“Just the other day, for the first time, I made my first
error
in practice,” he said. “I’ve been mistake-free through
camp so
far, and I’m just trying to be that guy everyone wants me
to
be.”

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