re: Breaking news: Non-referee entered refs locker room and took game balls

There are lots of reasons. I just don't think the Patriots would be this nefarious for something that many or most would deem negligible in the effects on the actual game.

It would seem much more likely that the balls were inflated at or below the lowest possible threshold before the game and they may have changed slightly due to the weather, not ALL being gauged by the officials, etc.

I highly doubt all the balls were even the same PSI to start, let alone at halftime. I would assume there was a bit of variance.

The Colts balls could have started at or above the highest allowable threshold and then slightly diminished as did the Patriots but still fell within the allowable boundry.

There are a lot of other explanations aside from the Patriots nefariously paying an employee to take the balls into the bathroom on camera with a preset gauge that would remove exactly 1 PSI from each of the 12 balls in 90 seconds, and they had this planned, practiced and done for every game.

What about away games where they have no control over the movement of the balls from the room to the field, what do they do then?

It just seems more likely that it naturally happened due to a slew of other reasons none of which are nefarious.