The concussion issue in football and how the sport has taken a public relations hit as a result have been well documented.

Longtime retired NFL players sued the league for damages from concussions and received $765 million, though a federal judge rejected that figure in fear it’s not enough.

Participation in Pop Warner football fell off by 9.5 percent — or 23,612 youths — from 2010 through 2012. USA Football, another popular youth grid program, lost 200,000 kids during the same time period.

President Barack Obama has even called a White Hose summit to discuss this issue as medical researchers say they do not know enough about the long-term effects of concussions on the still-developing brains of youths.

With all of that information out there, Butler football is undergoing a restructuring, becoming more streamlined from top to bottom.

There are no longer two youth football factions in Butler as the Lil’ Tornadoes have thrown their resources and players to the Butler Area Midget Football League.

The BAMFL, for the second straight season, is competing in a travel league and playing teams from other school districts. The BAMFL plans to field multiple teams this fall.

The irony of all this is that while youth football numbers are dropping nationwide, now is the best time in years for kids to get involved in Butler youth football.

The kids will go through the program executing the same system year after year. First-year Golden Tornado head coach Robert Densmore is on the same page as every coach and football organizer in this town.

He has the current high school football players doing things together as a team, including supporting other Butler High athletic programs.

The unity is there.

Can on-field success be far behind?

Probably not.

But kids have to play.

Concussions are a part of football. There’s no denying that. Butler’s varsity team went through an unusually high number of them last year.

But a kid can bang his head in virtually any sport. He can get hurt falling off a bicycle, playing in the yard, etc.

We can’t live in a bubble, after all.

Work is being done to curtail concussions in football. One recent study showed only 4.3 percent of kids ages 5-14 suffered a concussion while playing football the past two years.

That same study showed that 90 percent of youth gridders never missed a game or practice because of an injury. The majority of youth football injuries (34 percent) are bruises.

The concussion scare will cost football some potential players at the youth level. That’s a given.

Here’s hoping enough Butler kids who still love football are given the chance to participate in the sport and benefit from the new developmental system in town.

If so, good times are certainly on the way.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle