NFL ratings down 7.5% as Goodell says league won't force players to stand

• NFL viewership down during time of protest – but so are Nascar figures

• Roger Goodell says NFL will ‘encourage’ but not force players to stand

• Colin Kaepernick lawyer confident client will win grievance case

• Eagles’ Chris Long to donate rest of 2017 salary to education projects

The NFL’s embattled season continues as the latest figures showed TV ratings are down 7.5% compared with the first six weeks of last season, and down 18.7% on the same period in 2015.

Last year, the NFL said the presidential election had affected its figures, a theory that appeared to be proved correct when viewership rose after Donald Trump’s victory in November. While television viewership is down across America in general as people cancel their cable subscriptions, the figures will worry the league and its owners. ESPN reported that the league’s broadcast partners may have to adjust their revenue forecasts due to the lackluster ratings.

Many have blamed the decline on this year’s national anthem protests, during which players have knelt during the pre-game singing of the Star-Spangled Banner to call attention to racial injustice in the United States. Trump called players who protest “sons of bitches”, and surveys have shown a majority of white fans disapprove of the movement (in contrast, black fans are generally supportive). However, it is unclear how big a part player protests have played in the drop: Nascar drivers and teams have not joined in the protests – indeed, some owners are openly hostile to the movement – but viewing figures have fallen just as steeply.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said on Wednesday that the league wants all players to stand for the national anthem but does not plan to force them. “We believe that our players should stand for the national anthem,” he said after the league’s annual fall meetings with the team owners in New York. “We want our players to stand, we’re going to continue to encourage them to stand.”

When asked whether the NFL’s image has taken a hit in the wake of the controversy, Goodell was to the point.

“I understand how our fans feel about this issue and we feel the same way – about the importance of our flag, about the importance of patriotism – and I believe our players feel the same way,” he said. “They will state to you and they have stated to everyone publicly: They are not doing this in any way to be disrespectful to the flag, but they also understand how it’s being interpreted. That’s why we’re trying to deal with those underlying issues.”

He added: “We have about a half a dozen players that are protesting. We hope and we’re going to continue to work to try to put that at zero.”

The protest movement is haunting the NFL in other ways. Earlier this week, Colin Kaepernick, who was the first player to kneel for the anthem in September 2015, filed a grievance against the NFL and team owners, claiming there has been collusion to keep him out of the league. Kaepernick has been without a team since leaving the San Francisco 49ers in March.

On Tuesday, Kaepernick’s attorney, Mark Geragos, said he believed proof would emerge that owners had conspired to keep his client out of a job. “I am going to predict right now that we will have a smoking gun,” Geragos told CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “There are people who are not going to get into an arbitration proceeding and they are not going to lie. They are not going to lie. They are going to tell the truth and they’re going to say what happened. They were told no, you’re not going to hire him.”

Geragos added that Kaepernick’s aim is to play in the NFL again. “Colin said: ‘My No1 goal is – I’m 29 years old, I want to play,’” Geragos told Cooper.

There was some positive news from the NFL on Wednesday. Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Chris Long said he would donate the rest of his wages this season to education charities. “My wife and I have been passionate about education being a gateway for upward mobility and equality,” Long told the Associated Press. “I think we can all agree that equity in education can help effect change that we all want to see in this country.”

Long’s base salary for 2017 is $1m. He has made $89m over his NFL career.