Sean Lee missed out on a $2 million salary escalator by sitting out Week 17.

Lee’s contract with the Dallas Cowboys 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. 

Lee said it was his call to sit.

“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.”