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RIO 2016
Ryan Lochte

At least one company isn't shying away from Ryan Lochte

David Meeks
USA TODAY Sports
If Ryan Lochte's old sponsors don't want him, others are ready to sign him up.

A day after Ryan Lochte lost four major sponsors, Tuesday brought a man named Bobby with an offer for the Olympic swimmer.

That would be Bobby Cohen of bobbyties.com, purveyors of “the best $10 tie on the planet.” (Probably other planets, too.)

You call Ralph Lauren, you’re not getting straight through to the big guy. But at bobbyties, you don’t get a Sam or a Joe or even a Robert. You get Bobby. Bobby said he’s been following the Ryan Lochte saga, in particular the USA TODAY Sports investigation published Sunday about what really happened during an encounter between four members of the U.S. swim team and two armed security guards.

If Lochte’s old sponsors don’t want him, Cohen is ready to sign him up.

Speedo, three other sponsors drop Ryan Lochte

“I just think there’s been a rush to judgment with respect to Ryan,” said Cohen, who founded his tie business two years ago. “I’m not an attorney, but I don’t think he did anything criminal.”

Cohen knows Lochte embellished circumstances and details. He knows Lochte had been drinking that night.

But he also believes Lochte basically had it right. He and his teammates did get held at gunpoint. And as it turns out, vandalizing the bathroom never came up — authorities never even questioned the swimmers about it.

Ryan Lochte, U.S. swimmers never questioned about alleged Rio vandalism

Cohen also was in the stock brokerage business for 16 years, he said.

“I see Ryan as a blue-chip stock that has gotten whacked over the last week, but maybe I get to buy Ryan on sale.”

Lochte’s camp reported several preliminary inquiries Tuesday.

Not likely any of them condone Lochte placing himself in a compromised position.

But Cohen is among those Americans who are getting the full picture and standing up for the 12-time Olympic medalist. Lost in the furor over Lochte’s exaggerations was the facts, and overlooked among those facts is the image of armed men detaining unarmed men — U.S. citizens with guns on them in Brazil because they urinated in the bushes out behind the building and one of them knocked a sign down on the way out.

“I looked at the entire situation, and I didn’t see anything there that pushes the needle into the danger zone,” Cohen said. “They’re young guys, I know he’s in his 30s, but he was in the moment. This is the United States. I think everyone, I mean everyone, deserves a second chance. I feel strongly about that.

“I hope they get back to me.”

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