This is interesting.
Those crisis/PR firms will tell you 99 times out of 100 that you can't say nothing because you can't allow others to frame the story. That should come as no surprise -- those firms have a vested economic interest in your saying something.
In this case, I believe the storm had died, at least temporarily. Kraft's statement yesterday served, at least temporarily, to bring it back to life to the point that it is now on the first page of every electronic news medium.
So what's the motivation? I think it's as simple as Kraft believing that speaking out is the right thing to do. If you want to be a bit more cynical, you can accurately say he is very concerned about protecting the Patriots' brand.
A more sinister view -- one that I think will be advanced by either or both of these guys -- will gain traction is there is some Patriots' specific stuff in the affidavits suggesting that the team should have been at DEFCON 4, at least, with AH. My guess is that there will be no such stuff, but that's not going to stop the argument.
If he was going to speak, I agree that yesterday was the day. It was Kraft's first full day back in the country, and you really don't want him anywhere near opining on AH's guilt or innocence. Kraft handled himself well yesterday in this regard, but all the crap about to be released will provide more fodder for questions going in that direction.
EDIT -- Two other interesting nuggets from yesterday's session, via the Globe:
Kraft didn’t say whether the team will be less willing in the future to take on players with character risks, but “you can be sure we’ll be looking at our procedures and auditing how we do things.”
I think the most likely answer to this will be "yes". This is the one area on the personnel side where the owner can trump the GM and the GM really doesn't have much in the way of legitimate complaint. Add AH to the Dennard near miss and come to your own conclusions.
Kraft said the incident has cast a pall over the organization over the past two weeks, and he worries that it could be a big distraction during training camp, which begins on July 25.
“Everything we don’t want is happening,” he said.
A fair number of posters played this down, but I think Kraft is worried sick about it. The team has done about everything it can by its actions and his statements to diminish the chances of a downward spiral. In my non- expert view, they now would be wise to get out of the commentary business.
