Help an Arsenal fan and friend of Cartilage Free Captain... seriously!

I'm just going to come right out and say it: I want you to give money to a Gooner.

The General Manager of The Short Fuse, an Arsenal blog and CFC's sister site on the SB Nation network, is Thomas Wachtel. You may not know him personally, but you've most assuredly seen what he's written. Since I assumed leadership of Carty-Free we've collaborated a number of times for North London Derbies and the like. Say what you want about Arsenal and the "rivalry" we have TSF (I do!), but Thomas is one of the good guys, a person I'd consider a friend and a hell of a writer.

Well, it seems that last month Thomas incurred a pretty nasty injury while rock climbing, which led to some pretty major surgeries, one heck of a scar, and a lot of ridiculous, crippling medical bills. Thomas was reportedly ready to dip into his retirement savings to pay this stuff, to which his fellow writers at The Short Fuse said hogwash and poppycock! and whipped up a Youcaring crowdfunding site to help with his bills. Because while politics is verboten on this blog, nobody should ever have to exhaust their retirement plan because the health care in this country sucks ass.

Which brings me back to why you should give money to a Gooner. Besides the fact that Thomas is a straight-up good guy (despite his unfortunate choice in soccer teams), a strong showing from Cartilage Free sends a message that we're not just about hating Arsenal fans. (Well, we are, but we're not just about that.) At the end of the day, sports-related tribalism is dumb, and in the end it's about helping people. TSF set a goal of $5000 for this Youcaring campaign, and in two days it's almost reached $1800.

But this is more than about crossing arbitrary sports-related divides. It's about supporting one of our own. And also, TSF is giving away free stuff to people who donate:

- If you give $20, you'll get a personal shoutout/thankyou on TSF social media, including the official site Twitter and FB, and the twitters of at least a couple of the individual writers

- If you give $100, you'll get to be a TSF author*! Choose from the following topics:

- Arsenal's biggest current playing need and who can fill it

- Who should be Arsenal's next coach and why

- Should Arsenal join the Real Madrid/Barcelona/City/Chelsea arms race?

- Mesut Ozil: An Appreciation

- My all-time favorite Arsenal player/game/goal/season (pick any one)

- If you give $500, you can write 1000 words on whatever Arsenal-related topic you want!**

If more than five people donate at the $100 level, we'll come up with more topics!

*Subject to very light editorial control - we won't change content, but reserve the right to fix spelling/punctuation/grammar as needed. While we don't plan on using it, we also reserve the right to tell you to start over if the piece you submit falls afoul of our usual posting guidelines (which will be made available to you).

**following TSF's site rules and the above-referenced editorial controls

I can't think of many people who are as committed to their SBN blog as Thomas is to TSF. I gave because I'd hope someone would do this for me or my family if I needed it. If you've got a few bucks burning a hole in your pocket, please consider donating. Earmark it "from your friends at Cartilage Free Captain." Besides, if the majority of the funds comes from Spurs fans, just think of the fantastic troll job we can give Thomas from now until... well, eternity. It'd be glorious.

Consider a donation. It's for a worthy cause and to a worthy guy. I promise.