{Thread From Yesteryear-correct link posted later in the thread}"The Saints Ain't Sinners" (op-ed by 2 AEI economists in LA Times - merged)

There were several of us on this site who asked the question whether or not we caused more injuries than what would be expected and whether we committed an abnormal amount of penalties.

If we were incentivizing injuries, then the numbers would bear that out. As this report shows, that was clearly not the case.

We are left with two conclusions:

Either the coaches attempted to incentivize injuries and the players ignored those enticements (the conclusion that the LA Times came to, which presupposes that the league's assertion is accurate),

OR

Such incentives did not exist, which explains why the Saints did not injury opponents at a higher than average rate.