Joe Paterno passed away Sunday from complications from lung cancer.

I'm not going to rehash all my feelings about him. If you follow this blog or my twitter account you know how I feel about the recent events at Penn State.

Paterno has become the definition of the tragic figure. The long tenured head coach of one of the more successful football teams in the nation, he has been remembered more in the last 24 hours for the countless lives he touched than for anything he ever accomplished on the football field.

However in the last 3 months, all of those aspects have been overshadowed by the Jerry Sandusky fiasco. Guilty of simply not doing enough morally- not legally- to remove a child predator from society, the question is what you attribute his motivation for the inaction to.

Do you take him at his word that he truly, honestly believed he had done enough and that if his superiors felt no action was needed he was justified in not pursuing matters any further? Is not doing everything in your power to prevent future victims simply a mistake? Akin to forgetting to set your alarm to wake up in the morning?

Or do you feel that given the severity of the issues brought forward, he should have contacted police in spite of his superiors' attempt to brush it all under the carpet?

Those two contrasting positions determine how you will remember "JoePa". It is truly tragic that a man who had apparently done so much for so many for so long will end up being remembered by some for what he didn't do. It is also justified.

In life, no person is ever as good as you think they are; nor as bad as you assume. I make no assumptions on the character of a man I've never met. I've only given opinions on what actions the university took in light of the revelations in the last year.

All that is put to rest with the passing of Paterno. What's done is done, and how people choose to remember the man is their own business.

May his soul rest in peace.