Chicago, fickle? Never.

Recently me and my S.O. were having a heated discussion about a recent Bill Simmons article (if you're not aware of Bill Simmons, go to espn.com right now - he is their sports columnist and is amazingly funny and knowledgeable about all things sports and pop culture related - if he wasn't married I would contemplate running away with him).
At any rate, the discussion (over whether or not fans actually like Roger Clemens) basically disintegrated into a conversation about Chicago fans, he claiming that they we are worse than New York or Boston fans and me exclaiming that we are far better than either of them. His argument was that Chicago fans are fickle, turning on any 'star' on the team as soon as they stop performing and then relentlessly heckling them, citing Sammy and Rex as examples of such behavior. The rationale for the "worse than New York and Boston fans" argument was that although New York fans are known for being harsh and critical, that at least their team gets results (but that's not really fair - we can control the spending habits of Chicago sports management) and while Boston fans were more pathetic, sticking with a sinking player for a long time, at least they earned some credibility in his eyes for not turning so quickly on their players (although now, with a World Series win under their belt I'd say that this too is changing).
Being the nice midwesterner that I am, I couldn't stand for a comparison that made us seem worse than New York and Boston (two of the rudest cities alive - second only to anywhere in New Jersey, don't get me started on New Jersey), so I argue that Chicago fans obviously better than either of the two. Sure, we may get upset and turn on star players but that's only because they aren't performing, not because we're angry that the owner dropped a lot of cash to stock the team - although perhaps we'll be throwing loose change at Soriano by the season's end if he doesn't perform. Keep in mind that the losing cross we bear is now the longest and the loneliest (at least in baseball) so we are far more suffering than any Boston fan can ever be, so if we appear anything but supportive it's because we're dealing with decades of loss, who can be expected to keep a consistently positive attitude when faced with years of experience that say otherwise - we're not fickle, we're realistic.
Bottom line, when your baseball stadium is the world's biggest bar and your football stadium is an outdoor one stuck in some of the most brutal winter weather there is it's impossible not to appear fickle to those that don't understand. Trying to consume as much beer as possible before the 7th inning cutoff can make the nicest person seem hostile and sitting in 10 degree weather watching your quarterback get sacked yet again might make you utter things that sound like a fairweather fan, but believe me, if you are at a Bears game in January, it really is anything but fairweather.