Two days ago I posted about SB Nation's Arsenal blog manager Thomas Wachtel and his crippling medical bills brought on by a recent accident. He's a good friend of the blog and an excellent writer and person. I asked Cartilage Free Captain readers to consider donate some money to help Thomas so that he doesn't have to blow through his retirement savings and live the rest of his life eating cat food and existing like the Constitutional Peasant from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

And you came through. Big time. We're so incredibly grateful. Which is why we're doubling down.

Paul (pdb) from The Short Fuse has issued Carty-Free a challenge, in the name of football rivalry, good deeds, and all things proper and decent. Believe it or not, our userbase is larger than TSF's, and while the response to Thomas' campaign has been overwhelming, there's still a long way to go. So here's the deal: if Cartilage-Free Captain can muster up enough support to push Thomas' YouCaring campaign over its goal of $5000 by Saturday noon PDT...

We get to take over The Short Fuse for a day.

That's right! If we can get enough people to donate so that we can earn $2500 for Thomas, then on a day to be determined later (but after the North London Derby) the Cartilage Free writing staff will take over The Short Fuse. We'll write and post all the articles on that day. As many posts as we want. Whatever we want. Forever in our shadow.

Just imagine: articles about how Coquelin is better than Messi. Photoshops of Daniel Levy's head on Chips Keswick's body. Breaking news about The Emirates being leveled for a car park. The #banter possibilities are endless! Should we complete the challenge we won't be mean, of course -- we're not out to piss people off, just raise money for a good cause and have some excellent #banter along the way.

How to donate

The Short Fuse has set up a YouCaring campaign, and many of you will be able to donate through that site. For non-American donators: pdb is working on a more elegant solution but for now you can PayPal him directly at pdebruler at g mail dot com and he'll credit the YouCaring account. Be sure and tag your donation by either mentioning Cartilage Free Captain or using the hashtag #COYS.

The good news is: if you've already donated, your contributions WILL count towards the new goal. But don't let that stop you from giving more! We know, $2500 is a lot of money, so we'll want to growth-hack the hell out of this. Spread the word. RT the tweet from @cartilagefree. Share this on Facebook. Let's get the word out to as many Spurs fans as we can. Because in the end, even if we lose, we will have raised a crap-load of money for Thomas and will be helping out a good guy.

It's win-win. And if we win, it's win-win-win. And if Spurs beats Arsenal next week, it's winfinity.

So challenge accepted, The Short Fuse. Let's get it on.