The New York Times recently published the results of an investigation into social media's black market called The Follower Factory. It's a fascinating look into how celebrities, athletes, pundits and politicians end up having millions of fake followers on Twitter.

As part of the investigation, a number of recognizable names were discovered to have boosted their social-media followings by purchasing fake followers through a shadow company called Devumi.

Ohio State QB Tate Martell, a one-time Texas A&M commit whose social media antics have made him no stranger to Aggie fans and area high school football fans, is mentioned in the story as a Devumi client.

Martell currently has 87,000 followers on Twitter. He had three separate incidents that caught the attention of area sports fans over the past year and a half.

Most recently, Martell appeared to take a shot at A&M after the Aggies blew a 34-point lead against UCLA last September. He logged onto Twitter and posted three crying-face emojis at the culmination of the game. He later denied it had anything to do with the A&M game.

Martell, a highly touted QB recruit out of Bishop Gorman in Las Vegas, was originally committed to A&M before flipping his commitment to Ohio State in 2016. When Martell decommitted, it set off an ill-advised tweet storm from then-A&M assistant Aaron Moorehead.

Current A&M QB Nick Starkel posted messages that Martell had sent an anonymous third party, where Martell said he could "start as a true freshman easy" and that "all their QB's left and all there is going to be is nick Starkel and he's ass my dude."

Later that fall, Martell led Bishop Gorman to a win over local powerhouse Cedar Hill. Minutes after the win, he took to Twitter and posted "Texas who?" and followed it up with an updated map of the United States, which placed Nevada over Texas. He ultimately deleted both tweets.

Martell joined his Ohio State teammates in Arlington in December for the Cotton Bowl. Offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson lauded Martell's maturity, saying he has put his ego aside and done what's asked of him, gaining respect of his teammates in the process.

"He has grown a lot, just being a good teammate," Wilson said. "That's hard at quarterback, because you're always the guy."

Former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Joey Galloway was also among the athletes mentioned in the investigation, which also named former NFL star Ray Lewis, Olympic swimmer Adam Peaty, the MLB's Brandon Phillips, the NHL's Erik Johnson and rower James Cracknell as clients of Devumi.