Rivalry Week is highly profane

Colleen Randall, a moderator/gatekeeper for the Deseret News online edition, can always tell when it's Rivalry Week in Utah.

The profanity count soars. Suddenly, reader Internet posts look like the script from "Goodfellas."

Colleen's job is to sift comments that are posted on the Web site and delete those deemed too profane, hateful or off-point.

Which pretty much describes everything during Rivalry Week.

Memo to message writers: Colleen is a kindly 56-year-old grandmother who probably never said anything stronger than "oh my heck." Rosanne Barr, she's not. And then Rivalry Week comes along, and it's like she has a front-row seat at a Kathy Griffin monologue.

"Some of it is hard to read," she says. "It's shocking. It's raunchy and mean-spirited."

Welcome to Rivalry Week, e-generation style. The BYU-Utah rivalry has always been intense on and off the field, but with the proliferation of technology — namely, Internet comments, blogs and message boards — it just got meaner. It hasn't gone unnoticed.

"The last couple of years (the rivalry) has gotten a little over the top," BYU linebacker Matt Bauman told the Deseret News this week. "It's gotten kind of bitter and more hateful."

He was talking about fans, not players.

Some players wish the "Holy War" weren't so unholy, but there's little chance of this thing being overtaken by an outbreak of civility. The Internet has created a new level of nastiness — just read the comments section following any online news story — but especially when it comes to the rivalry. The theme: If you haven't got something nice to say, post an Internet comment immediately.

Ute fans — the NCAA equivalent of Raiders fans. Classless pieces of *$%#!

(BYU fans) are obnoxious, self-righteous &$%#!

A lot of the posts are back-and-forth banter and name-calling that sound like 5-year-olds on the playground.

This rivalry does not bring out the best in people.

The Internet emboldens fans who might normally feel some restraint in social settings. People tend to be more, um — how should I put this? — expressive, with their feelings and their fingers on the Internet, not to mention the freeway, there being safety and anonymity at home and in the car.

Hence, the words fly.

"The closer to the game it gets, the worse it is," says Colleen. "It gets to you. Sometimes I just have to walk away for a minute and clear my head."