I’m just going on intuition here, but Paterno wouldn’t have any reason to have any day-to-day dealings with any of those people. The Board of Trustees ultimately controlled his fate (as you saw) and they have been looking to get rid of him for years. This simply provided a convenient excuse to do so.
That is NOT TRUE. The majority of the Trustees and Board loved him because he was bringing in 30-40 Mill a year. How do you think Joe had so much power all of these years? Simple, the $$$$ he was bringing in while he would only take 1 Mill a year salary.
Ole Mr. Beaver is resting well in his grave. If he could talk, "There not gonna change my stadium name after this clown".