Sean Lee, Sits Out Dallas Cowboys' Week 17, Loses $2 Million Next Season

On Sunday, Sean Lee decided not to play in the Dallas Cowboys' game against the Washington Redskins. It was a decision that ultimately cost him $2 million for next season.  Lee, who earlier in the week tweaked his hamstring, warmed up during the pregame for week 17's clash. Unfortunately, the hammy just wasn't taking it.

"Any time with a hamstring if it bites at all you know that it's probably not going to warm up and feel better," Lee said, via The Dallas Morning News. "As I kept warming up and running, it didn't feel better."

Yes, not even $2 million quelled the pain. However, Lee wanted to be clear that it was his decision, and his alone.

"It was me who decided to not play," Lee said, via The Dallas Morning News. "It didn't feel like I was going to be effective enough to help the football team. Thursday on 7-on-7, [I] didn't warm up well enough and kind of tweaked the hamstring. The problem was it was a little too close to the game.  If I had a couple extra days I probably could've played, but it was completely my decision. I felt like I was not going to be effective and not going to be able to help the team."

In order to have received the extra $2 million from the Cowboys--which would have given Lee $5 million next season, instead of the $3 million he'll now get--Lee needed to play in 80-percent of the Cowboys' defensive snaps. Because of his decision to sit out, Lee ended up playing in 812 of the team's 1,052 defensive plays, which comes out to 77.2 percent, according to Yahoo! Sports. If Lee would have just played half of the snaps on Sunday, he would have recorded the amount of plays necessary to get that end of the year bonus, that according to The Dallas Morning News. However, Lee apparently isn't too worried about all that.

"To me, I'm going to be playing for the Cowboys next year, a great franchise, making a ton of money, so I'm not too worried," Lee said, via The Dallas Morning News.

Fair enough. Until next year then.