Ex-Charger Shawne Merriman once caught Nick Hardwick doing naked squats

People do strange things when they think no one's watching, like, for example, stripping down naked to do squats in the weight room.

In a piece written for the Players Tribune, retired linebacker Shawne Merriman recalls walking in on former San Diego Chargers teammate Nick Hardwick doing exactly that.

Here's the story, in Merriman's words:

It's the middle of a game week, and we're at the Chargers facility early for team meetings. Our defensive meeting ends early, so I decide to go hit the gym for a few minutes.

I'm walking to the gym, and it's pretty much a ghost town. It's about 8 AM, and most of the guys are still in other meetings. I walk past the floor-to-ceiling glass windows that look into the gym, and just like the rest of the facility, it's pretty much empty.

Except for one guy: our then-300-pound center, Nick Hardwick.

And he's literally butt-ass naked, wearing nothing but tennis shoes and his tattoos, doing squats.

Merriman was, of course, baffled by the situation.

"I don't even know how to react," he wrote. "I want to say something. I mean, I have so many questions. But what do you say to someone who's squatting butt-naked? That's a conversation I just don’t know how to have.

"Instead, I freakin' lose it. I'm literally on all fours laughing, crying so hard I can barely stand up. I never even make it into the weight room. I just run to tell the other guys, Yo, go check out your boy Nick …"

It apparently wasn't uncommon to find Hardwick wandering around the team facilities naked. As he explains, he often used nudity as a way to help break the ice.

"Sometimes I would show up to a special teams meeting uninvited," Hardwick wrote. "I'd walk in butt naked, and go up and give the special teams coordinator a hug. A big, butt-naked hug. Then I'd leave."

Merriman said there is no photographic evidence of Hardwick's naked squat routine, which is probably a good thing.