Frank The Tank has been a Barstool office fixture since Dave Portnoy plucked him off local news mid-rant about NJ Transit back in 2016, and somewhere along the way the guy became an honorary ambassador for every fanbase that walks through the door. This week it was Notre Dame's turn, with linebacker Drayk Bowen and safety Adon Shuler stopping by for a walk with Frank.
Notre Dame captains Drayk Bowen and Adon Shuler stopped by the NYC office for a walk with Frank today
Both guys are legit Notre Dame leaders, not just names picked off a depth chart. Bowen was the Irish's leading tackler last fall and is back wearing the captain's patch again, while Shuler has spent the last two seasons racking up interceptions and forced fumbles as one of the more dependable pieces of that Notre Dame secondary. Getting both of them in the building for a Frank walk is the kind of access swing that only really happens because Barstool has built out a real relationship with the program.
The real payoff, though, is the jersey. Frank filmed his intro for the walk holding up a green Notre Dame jersey with a gold No. 3, and that number isn't random — it's a direct callback to a jersey moment with a Frank from 3 years earlier, according to the post that kicked this whole thing off.
3 years later.. Same jersey, new Frank
That kind of callback only lands if you've been paying attention to the bit for years, which is exactly the Barstool office shtick — recurring characters, running jokes, and athletes who are in on it enough to play along. Frank inspecting the jersey in front of the office's pizza-slice backdrop before the walk even started is a small, dumb, perfect piece of that continuity.
Frank’s intro he filmed for today’s walked couldn’t have gone smoother
None of this moves the needle on Notre Dame's actual season, obviously — Bowen is still working back from offseason surgery and Shuler is still the safety opposing quarterbacks would rather avoid. But it's a reminder that Barstool's relationship with programs like Notre Dame isn't just tweets and highlights; it's captains showing up in person, getting looped into a running gag that's older than some fans' attention spans, and Frank getting to be the connective tissue between 2 completely different rosters, 3 years apart.