Opportunity Cost of the Flag Football Tournament

As we have learned in the past, opportunity cost is what you lose from one option when you choose other options. As some of you may know, there is currently a flag football tournament going on during lunch time this week. After participating it in, I realized the opportunity costs that came with this tournament.

The benefits of this tournament is that players get to play against other teams/grades and earn bragging rights over one another. Another benefit is the simple opportunity to play games of organized football with friends for fun.

Although this is a flag football tournament, there is still a lot of contact and opportunities of injuries when participating in this tournament given the nature of the sport. Players are still running full speed around the field whether it's to pull flags, catch the ball, defend a player and much more. Along with the fact that there are 18 players on the field at all time, there is a high possibility of running into someone. Therefore, one opportunity cost of participating in the tournament is that you risk your health and thus increase your chances of injuries. Without participating in the tournament, you have a much higher chance of staying healthy and not suffering an injury.

Another opportunity cost is that you sacrifice the time to eat a good lunch. Given to how the games are set up and the time required to play in them, most players are left with little time to eat lunch. Thus some players are forced to not eat lunch or not enough, which can affect someone's learning ability and health, or forced to eat school lunches or food that they have quickly thrown together that isn't appetizing.

Although playing in the flag football tournament may be fun to play with friends and earn bragging rights, one must be able to weigh the opportunity costs of participating in it and make smart decisions for the benefit of their own health.