On Sunday, MDS pointed out that Cowboys linebacker Sean Lee would miss out on a $2 million salary escalator by being inactive for the team’s regular season finale against the Redskins.
Lee’s contract calls for him to make $5 million if he played 80 percent of the team’s defensive snaps and was above that threshold before missing Week 17. After the game, Lee said it wasn’t the Cowboys’ call to have him sit out the game and that he made the decision to hold himself out with a hamstring injury he suffered in practice on Thursday.
“It was absolute -- 100 percent a hamstring injury,” Lee said, via the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “I didn’t feel like I was going to be effective to help the football team. The problem was that it was so close to the game. If I had a couple of more days, then maybe I could have played. If today was the Super Bowl, then maybe you try the best you can to get out there, but I would have been running at about 75 percent. I hadn’t tested it at all since Thursday and you know that if it bites at all, it’s probably not going to warm up.”
The Cowboys could revisit Lee’s contract and give the linebacker a $2 million raise, but they’re barred from just giving him the bonus under NFL rules.