For those of you who haven't heard, Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel has been fined $250K and suspended for the first two games of the 2011 season.  The reason?  He had knowledge that some of his players were selling autographed program gear to a local tattoo shop for money - or tattoos.

Here's the HR connection.  Tressel got an email from a legitimate contact way ahead of the curve saying it was going on.  He told the contact he would get on it "ASAP".  When the story broke, he said he wasn't aware.  Whoops.

HR pros know better than anyone.  Where there's smoke, there's usually fire.  You have to walk down the hall and confront.  You have to get in front of the issue.

You get notified of bad stuff.  The clock's ticking.  What are you going to do?

HR pros get paid to knock out the investigation.  It starts by reacting quickly and not letting days and weeks - even months - slide by.  The issue's not going anywhere, and it's going to rise up and eat you if you don't deal with it.

It's fun to talk about the sexy parts of the job.  The recruiting. The technology you can deploy.

All of it means nothing as an HR Pro if you can't block and tackle the investigation involving bad stuff.

Jim Tressel knows that better than anyone.  He won't be applying for your HR Director spot.  He can recruit, but he'd kill you in other ways.