NFL commissioner Roger Goodell on Tuesday addressed the NFL’s decision to appeal Sue L. Robinson’s six-game suspension of Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson, saying “we decided it was the right thing to do.”

“It’s part of the CBA; the two parties had that right (to appeal),” Goodell said shortly after a special meeting of league owners in Minneapolis was held to approve Robson Walton and his group as the new owners of the Denver Broncos. “Either party could challenge and appeal that. That was something we felt was our right to do, as well as the NFLPA’s, and we decided it was the right thing to do.”

Robinson, the disciplinary officer jointly appointed by the NFL and the NFLPA, proposed a six-game suspension for Watson on Aug. 1 for violating the league’s personal conduct policy, a decision that came after more than a month of deliberation. Robinson noted in her report that the NFL “carried its burden to prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that Mr. Watson engaged in sexual assault (as defined by the NFL) against the four therapists identified in the Report.”