Cowboys sit Sean Lee in Week 17, so he loses $2 million next season

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The Dallas Cowboys say Sean Lee has a hamstring injury.

And a few weeks ago, Jerry Jones refused to call it a lost season, so perspective is a must.

Lee won't play in Week 17, purportedly because of this ailment. But in doing so, he'll miss out on $2 million additional salary next season. Lee needs to play 80 percent of the defensive snaps to earn $5 million next season. Otherwise, he'll earn $3 million. Lee has played 812 of the Cowboys’ 989 snaps (82.1 percent), but if the Cowboys play more than 27 snaps on defense — which should happen sometime in the first half — Lee will be below the 80-percent mark.

 

That stinks.

Lee has been banged up through most of his Cowboys career, and even dating back to Penn State. But he has been, by all accounts, hard-working and selfless in his approach. If Lee really is hurt and the Cowboys do opt to give him the $2 mil, which can happen, it still will still count against the salary cap.

Or maybe Jones promised Lee a month's worth of personal use of the private bus. We just don't know.

The Cowboys also owe Darren McFadden an additional $300,000 after he surpassed the 1,000-yard mark in Week 17, so we can't say they're completely cheap. But Lee being inactive does raise an eyebrow or two.

Clemson, Alabama are last teams standing in college football

We're down to two.

And, boy, they both look impressive.

Top-ranked Clemson and No. 2 Alabama will face off in the desert for the national championship after dominating wins in the College Football Playoff semifinals Thursday. The Tigers romped in the second half for a 37-17 win over No. 4 Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl, followed by an even more dominating performance in which the Crimson Tide thumped Michigan State 38-0 in the Cotton Bowl.

 

The Jan. 11 title game in Glendale, Arizona, matches a high-scoring Clemson offense led by quarterback Deshaun Watson against Nick Saban's latest dominating defense at Alabama, which limited the Spartans to 239 yards.

There's another story line to the title game. Clemson coach Dabo Swinney is an Alabama alumnus who played on the Tide's 1992 national championship team.

Now, he's going against the greatest coach of this generation. Saban has won three national titles in the last six years at Alabama, to go along with a BCS title at LSU.

Clemson and Alabama will be playing for the first time since 2008, when Alabama won 34-10 in a game that signaled the Tide's return to national prominence under Saban