Well, it looks like some Cardinal bloggers over at VEB came up with a pretty spiffy little extension that you can download to your Google Chrome browser. It gives you the power to collapse a comment and the entire thread that it spawns. I've tried it out for a few minutes and it looks like it works well, so I'll give it my Loose Seal of Approval (eh, you catch that?). The original SB Nation post is linked above and here, and has a full explanation. Here's the direct link to the download.