"padded".

Excess deaths are one way we can try to see if your claim is true. The idea is that deaths are relatively static year over year. We've seen around a 1% annual increase in deaths each year the last decade or so. So we can go look up the CDC's weekly deaths (all deaths) and compare it against what our annual increase should have been if Covid didnt exist.

Through May 31st excess deaths IN EXCESS of what we would have expected are 133,000 from March 1st through May 31st. These numbers don't even include June or July yet because it takes time to get the full scope of deaths. This would indicate that we are actually UNDERREPORTING covid deaths. But, I would love to hear what primary sources you have to contradict what the evidence plainly shows.

Feel free to check my numbers for yourself here: https://gis.cdc.gov/grasp/fluview/mortality.html

The numbers I was showing compared the overall flu death rate for young adults compared to the (so far) overall covid death rate for young adults. I have no way of knowing what the death rate for college football players. But, that is rather moot. If the flu death rate for all young adults is less than the covid death rate for all young adults, then we should be able to safely assume that same conclusion also applies to college players, even though the death rates for players for both flu covid might be lower than the overall averages for all young adults.