• 60 Minutes, Monday, December 1, 2008 10:45 AM

Anderson Cooper did a nice profile of 14-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps on "60 Minutes" last night. Most of it explores Phelps' winning, down-to-earth personality (despite his otherworldly will to win), but about the 6:00 mark on the video, Cooper and Phelps discuss the alchemy of turning his sports achievements into real gold. There have even been sponsorship offers for his bulldog, Herman.

Phelps' agent, Peter Carlisle -- who is seen advising against a $5 million sponsorship offer that come across on his BlackBerry as Phelps speaks at an event for Visa -- believes that the total of his client's deals could eventually surpass $100 million. "Sometimes I get a little frustrated but in the long run I know why he rejected it and why he does stuff like that," Phelps tells Cooper.

"Carlyle's office receives about 300 calls a day but he's only looking for companies that fit Phelps' lifestyle," Cooper reports. The reason he signed with Subway over 10 other restaurant chains that made offers, we're told, is that it plans to market Phelps overseas. And a car endorsement in China is on the way, Cooper reports -- which is breaking news, as far as I can determine.

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